Hush lover, you'll wake the dead
by Coffeeandscribe
Summary: Sora's world fell apart when his college became ground zero for the Zombie Apocalypse. Can he and his remaining friends pull together with their rivals, the hated nobodies, and their leader, Sora's biggest enemy, Riku, to stay alive? Worse yet, will Sora find himself caught between what he knows is right and who he knows he wants? Riku/Sora, Axel/Roxas. Possible lemons.
1. The beginning

I can't really tell you when it all started, but I can get kind of close. I remember it being sunny the day the world went to hell, and breezy as well. Kind of ironic, isn't it? You'd think that the day the universe fell apart would be full of storms and thunder and a symbolic tornado would come crashing through and destroying everything in its path. But no, it was perfectly pleasant. Not even a cloud to ruin the good mood I was in.

I showed up at my classes just like any other weekday. I slumped into my desk and mentally braced myself for the snooze-fest to follow. Historical architecture was my least favorite hour of the day, but since my parents were paying a hefty sum for my college education, I figured I'd better show up. I didn't promise I would stay awake, but hey, at least I was in my seat.

"Muslim art and architecture is all around us. Even this lecture hall…" My professor's voice seemed to drift farther and farther away while I stared out the window of the Grand Nomura lecture hall. The sky was impossibly blue. I kept looking for a tuft of white to ruin the endless sea, but none were found. At the time I didn't know that a cloud wasn't necessary to ruin the day. Oh no, something much more terrifying would take care of that.

Class ended after I took a nice little nap. I stretched in my seat and then collected my bags, waving to a guy with spiky blond hair at the other end of the lecture hall.

"Hey Roxas, wait up!" I trotted my way over to my best friend eagerly, since I hadn't seen him last night in our dorm. He had gone over to his girlfriend Kairi's place to spend the night. They were a new item, only been together a month or so. But Roxas liked her well enough, and she took his mind off of his old girlfriend Namine, whom had left him three months ago. I thought he would never get over her. But Roxas, resilient as ever, seemed to have perked up and gotten through his heartbreak.

"Come on Sora, its nacho day in the cafeteria, and you know how important that is to me!" Roxas was walking ahead of me, strolling at a pace that I could barely keep up with. I pouted (a pesky habit I acquired over the years) and picked up the pace to stay in stride with Rox.

"I don't see why we can't just eat at home; you know I hate the cafeteria." I grumbled to myself, knowing I wouldn't win the argument. I never win. I'm a push-over, an adorable guy who is too easy-going and care-free to throw a fit about much of anything. Sure, I'm prone to whine a bit here and there, but for someone who normally goes with the flow, I think I'm entitled to a bit of grief over corn chips and fake cheese.

"Because I love nacho day, Sora. I love it more than I love breasts, and Netflix, and all the music you can illegally download off the internet. Now kick that skinny ass into gear, I have a fiesta to attend!" Roxas broke into a flat-out run at this point, leaving me to sputter in his dust cloud.

After a fairly casual walk into the cafeteria I noticed Roxas nearly at the front of the line, practically drooling in anticipation for his food. I shook my head disapprovingly and walked over to our usual table where the rest of my friends sat. Olette and Hayner where heatedly arguing over some matter, but I wasn't too concerned at the time. I plopped down next to my brother, Vanitas, and laid my head on the table.

"What's up, bro?" Van lifted an eyebrow at me in his cool and reserved way. He was munching on some baby carrots off of Pence's plate, whom protested halfheartedly, before groaning and holding his stomach. His face was far too pale, and a little green. But I just kind of ignored it.

"Another boring lecture." I sighed.

"Sora, you sleep through that whole class," Vanitas shook his head and snatched a bite of cake off of Olette's plate. She didn't notice because she was still arguing with Hayner, who was apparently winning.

"Hay, don't you understand that sometimes the world just doesn't work that way?" Olette frowned and crossed her arms childishly.

"No, Letty, I don't, because for guys like me, the world does work that way. You can take a girl home, sleep with her, and then never call her again. Because I'm sexy, and girls love to have sex with me." Hayner flicked a finger on the curve of her nose, all while laughing to himself. Olette gaped at him, then pushed his shoulders and turned to face Selphie instead, who was far less offensive at the time.

"Can you believe those two?" I asked Van, who simply shrugged in response.

"I can't believe how they haven't done it yet. Hormones are practically jumping like electricity between them." He smirked and continued his food stealing game.

I rolled my head so that my other cheek was lying on the table, and I really shouldn't have. That was when I made eye contact with _him._

He was the most awful person to ever exist in the history of ever. Quite frankly I was pretty sure that the sun would not set if he didn't do something just terrible to another human being in the span of the day. His silver hair lay artfully over his shoulder while he leaned back in his chair and laughed with his friends. His sea-foam eyes danced while he animatedly told a story that had his friends rolling.

I hated Riku with probably all of my being, and then a little extra to boot. We called his group the _nobodies_, and boy did I ever wish they deserved the title. They were actually the most popular kids in school, while my friends and I were closer to the bottom of the food chain than the top. But I wouldn't have traded Olette, Hayner, Vanitas, Roxas, Selphie, or Kairi for anybody else in the world. They were the best friends any guy could ask for.

The silverette stood up from his spot and walked to the lunch line, his head cranked to continue talking to his friends. Roxas never saw him, he never saw Roxas. It was a disaster waiting to happen, but when their bodies collided I never would have guessed the commotion that would ensue.

"What the hell man, you ruined my shirt!" Riku stared at Roxas in disbelief, his arms spread wide as he recoiled. Roxas gaped at the silver-haired man, his gaze switching from his face to the nachos that were now displayed all over his white t-shirt. Rox tried to stammer out an apology, but it ended up coming out as something like "My nachos…" and a small heartbroken gasp.

Riku was obviously appalled. His face switched from disbelief to anger in a flash, and before I even realized what was happening, or Roxas even realized, for that matter, Riku had socked him square in the jaw.

Naturally I was flying from my seat to come to Rox's aid. I wasn't going to let my best friend go down without some back-up. Vanitas reached out for me, trying to call me back to the table, but I was already gone. Riku's friends had the same idea that I did, and soon the red-headed guy named Axel was coming right at me.

Needless to say the fight soon turned into a full-out brawl between my friends and the nobodies. Hayner took on Demyx and Vanitas duked it out with Luxord. But for the most part, we got our asses kicked. I had a bloody nose and a busted lip, but that wasn't going to stop me from kicking the red-head's ass.

The only thing that stopped the fight was the sudden screaming from my table where Olette and Selphie were backing away and shrieking. I whirled around to see what all the commotion was about, only to see Pence vomiting everywhere. All over the floor, the table, all over himself and everything in sight; it seemed impossible how much his body was expelling. I recoiled from the sight; it was far too horrific to watch.

Vanitas, a med student, sprang into action though, immediately rushing to Pence's side.

"Pence, Pence what's wrong?" He helped his friend stand up straight before being covered in projectile vomit. Vanitas cringed, but didn't move away. By this point Selphie and Olette were sobbing. Hayner had his arms around the latter of the two, and Selphie was inconsolable by herself. The fighting had stopped for now, since the nobodies that surrounded me shared my disgust.

"What the hell is that? That shit's nasty!" There was a chorus of cries form people in the cafeteria, but I remained frozen in my spot. I didn't say anything, I didn't help anyone. I just kind of stood there, gaping at the scene just as Riku was next to me. The two of us were stuck in the moment, trapped in time.

Vanitas sat Pence down and began crying out for help, as his condition had worsened. People fled the cafeteria now, seeing as Pence had started convulsing and throwing up blood. Van tried to stop him, tried to help him, but he couldn't.

"What's happening?" I tried to speak, but it was Riku who managed words before me. He still stared in horror at the sight. Hayner had joined those fleeing the café, bringing Olette and Selphie with him as he went. I remember feeling jealous that I hadn't gone too.

Pushing his dark hair, covered in the contents of Pence's stomach now, out of his eyes, Van flustered for words. "I'm not sure! He won't stop!" He called for help once more, but no one seemed to be coming. There was noise everywhere and girls screamed and cried, and men shouted and got lost in the panic. There was something about it that didn't seem like reality. I was caught in a trance, trapped next to the silver-haired boy, and I couldn't move. I couldn't believe anything that was happening.

In fact, I was so busy watching everything going on around me, all the chaos and panic, that it was only Rox's scream that brought me back to my senses.

"_What the fuck!"_ Roxas yelled in my ear and then ran toward the table. I turned my head to see what he was talking about, only to catch a glimpse of Pence, dead on the floor.

"I don't know what happened…" Vanitas stared in disbelief at his friend lying in a mess of blood and stomach acid. Quickly as possible he dropped to his knees and began performing CPR on Pence. I found that my legs were working again, and I picked them up one by one and moved my way closer to the scene. Strangely enough Riku followed me, as if we were still stuck in the same trance.

I was half-way to the table when it happened. Pence shot upright, sputtering and choking. Vanitas sat back and took a breath of air, smiling that he had recovered his friend. His smile lasted only for a second though, because before I could lift one foot up and then set it down again, before I could even take a _step_, Pence was on top of Vanitas.

I'll never forget the way my brother screamed. I'll never be able to rid myself of the memory of his tortured, pained cry. I can see it all before my clear as day. I felt a hand pull me back, I watched helplessly as Vanitas' skin was torn from his skull. I had to endure the sight of his flesh being eaten away by Pence, patient zero. Roxas scuttled away from the scene on his back, his face mirroring my horrified expression. I remember that there was so much screaming, and all hell broke loose. I never saw Vanitas again, for by the time I ever returned to the café all that was left of him was bones.


	2. Chapter two

"_Vanitas!"_ I shrieked as my brother thrashed about in pain before my eyes. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be true, how could something like this be true? No, it was all a dream, just some dark and twisted dream. It had to be. I was still sleeping in class, and I'd snap awake just as lecture ended like always. Of course, that had to be the only logical solution as to why Pence was _eating_ my brother.

The hand that had grabbed me moments before held me in place and yanked me farther away from Van. I tried to resist; I tried to break free so I could help him, but the grip on my wrist was far too tight. No amount of struggling was going to get me to Vanitas in time.

If people were scared before, then by this time they were absolutely terrified. Several people had fainted and crashed to the floor, the remaining girls nearly all cried, except for a select few who managed to fight back their tears. People shoved and pushed each other in order to get out of the large metal opening where the doors kept swinging closed.

"We have to move," A voice behind me ordered. The words were low and sounded so _right_ coming out of Riku's mouth, as if he was born to tell people what to do. I hated that. I wanted to whirl around and punch him straight in the eye, just so I could get to Vanitas. But my brother's screaming had stopped now. He writhed underneath Pence, clawing at the back of our friend's head feebly. His feet flew in all directions, kicking madly in a desperate attempt to throw the larger man off of him. It was too late.

I found myself locked in yet another trance while I was led toward the doors of the cafeteria, unable to force myself to move forward or go back. I don't know how long it took; it could have only been a few minutes or hours of us pushing and shoving in order to get through. The tugging at my wrist kept me trotting in the direction of the door while the cafeteria seemed to explode all around us. People couldn't stop screaming, and running around helplessly, and crying. We made it into the hallway outside of the cafeteria where nearly a hundred people now stood. In the sea of panicked faces I lost Roxas.

_Roxas!_ I skidded to a halt causing Riku, the owner of the hand, to trip over his own feet. He turned his head to raise an eyebrow at me. It was just now that I realized I was surrounded by the nobodies I had been in a fight with a few minutes ago. They all stared at me questioningly, but none of them said anything. They had been given the order by the pack leader, Riku, to move. So now they must wonder why they weren't moving. _Well sorry, he's not _my_ Alpha_. I thought bitterly.

"My friends," I muttered while trying to break free of Riku's grasp once more.

"You can't go back in there, are you _insane_?" Riku looked at me as if I was crazy and made his grip firmer on my wrist. "I said we were moving, and we have to get outside the building." He shifted his feet and pressed on, dragging me behind him while I protested.

"No, I need to go get Roxas, and Hayner, and the girls!" I pulled at my wrist, digging my heels into the floor tiles. I finally released Riku's grip and sprang free of his grasp, whipping my body around and sprinting for the cafeteria.

"Hey! Hey, come back here!" Riku called after me, and just as I made it to the door, just as my fingers touched the smooth metal, I was yanked back by an arm blocking my ribcage. The wind left my lungs and I landed on the floor with an unceremonious "Arruugh". I peered above me, only to see the Silverette glaring downward. Boy, he was quick.

"Sora, get up. We're going to the courtyard, and you're coming with us." Riku's tone was no-nonsense, absolutely not to be messed with. But I didn't care; this guy had nothing over me. Who was he to tell me what to do and what not to do? I had to find my friends, and that was that.

"I'm not going anywhere without my friends!" I crossed my arms and glared right back at the silver-haired man in above me. His eyelids narrowed to slits so that his sea-green eyes could barely be seen, but just a flash of color peeked out from behind his dark lashes.

"Well, I'm not letting you go back in there. That's suicide." Riku grabbed me by the shoulder, effortlessly bringing me back to my feet with only one arm. _Ow_, I thought. You wouldn't have guessed it with him slender form, but Riku was pretty strong. He moved my body forward so that when we settled into a new position my face was up against the glass of the metal door. I could see in the café now, and was shocked at what I found.

Riku and I peered through to witness a girl sobbing over her boyfriend who had his leg bitten down to the bone, screaming in pain. Pence, or whatever Pence had become, was currently attacking a new victim, a freshman boy who pleaded for help as his stomach was ripped open and destroyed. My eyes darted around the room to see people cowering in fear, unable to move toward the door. They seemed unharmed, though one girl was on the floor wheezing with a terrified expression on her face. Someone was rubbing her back and whispering to her. I couldn't see his face, but I'd recognize Rox anywhere.

"Roxas!" I pushed myself onto the metal door and stumbled into the entrance of the cafeteria. Roxas whirled his head around to stare at me in disbelief, and then put his finger to his lips for me to be quiet. But it was too late; Roxas' warning was in vain. Pence's attention shot from the boy's intestines straight to me, the noise had attracted him. He slowly wobbled to his feet, then began heading toward me at a snail's pace.

"Sora, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Riku hissed at me from behind the half opened door.

_What the hell _am _I doing?_ I observed the scene displayed before me. My best-friend and nearly a dozen other helpless students were trapped on the left side of the cafeteria, and Pence was coming for me and would crash directly into them if I didn't do something. What could I do? How could I help them?

Just as Riku tried to pull me back behind the door I bolted into the middle of the cafeteria, heading to the right away from all of the others. Roxas stared at me dumbfounded as I sprinted past him and motioned for him to head to the door. He wasted no time picking up the asthmatic girl and carrying her toward the exit, the others catching on and following suit behind him. There were so many people still trapped here, at least two dozen or more students who were lying in agony or struggling to reach the door with their bites and injuries. I couldn't think about who they were as I leaped and bound over them, I just had to pretend they were hurdles out on the track. This was just a very important race at conference, or state. I just had to think of it that way in order to keep going.

Pence was following me now, he had picked up his pace a bit. I clambered my way onto a table, picking myself up and gunning it down the long plastic runway. I had to give them enough time to get out before I could loop back around, sneak out of Pence's way, and then bolt for the door. I had never been more thankful to be on the track team in my life.

But just as I had invented my clever plan, life decided to make my day even worse. One of the boys who had been dead on the ground proceeded to get up slowly, and then turn his attention toward me just as Pence had. His whole arm was missing now (Pence had consumed it) and much of him had been bitten but remained intact. He began trotting over to me from the opposite direction of Pence. I was trapped.

_Don't panic Sora. It's fine. You'll figure it out…_ I leapt from the table and jumped to another, trying to formulate a new plan. I had never expected another person to turn so quickly! I needed to figure a way out of here before they all turned.

"Sora!" Roxas called my name from the open doorway, his expression etched with worry. I waved to him and gave him a toothy smile, trying not to show how nervous I was. He tried to enter the cafeteria before being thrown back behind the doors.

"What is it with you people and running into danger?" I could hear Riku's voice from behind the half-opened door. He stepped into the cafeteria and quickly assessed my situation, which was going from bad to worse as another person slowly "woke" up and came after me, all of them a mere thirty feet away from me with only one opening to escape with. "_Hey!"_ Riku bellowed into the cafeteria, hollering with all of his might so that it echoed through the vaulted ceiling and caught the attention of all of the students who were after me. They slowly turned to see the source of the disturbance, and then began heading toward the door. My escape route was becoming narrower by the second; there was only a twenty foot gap between each of the students dragging themselves toward the door with lifeless movements.

"What do I do?" I jerked my head up to catch eyes with Riku, desperate for help.

"I'd start hauling ass!" Riku let out a small laugh as he flung the door wide open for me to get through. Or, at least, that's what I thought he was doing, before he shoved Roxas through the opening and held the swinging door closed behind the spiky haired blonde. Roxas pushed on the door, trying to get back to safety, and then whirled around to stare at me, horrified.

Wasting no time I jumped from the table and began my sprint toward the door. I pumped my legs with all the strength I could muster and held my arms as close as possible to avoid the groping hands of students begging for my help on the floor. I had to ignore them all; I never even looked down to see if any of them were Vanitas. They were beyond my help now. They were beyond all help now.

I raced past Pence and the other assailants, clearly faster and more nimble than they. Roxas began hollering for me to move faster. I pushed my legs against the tile even harder, getting just that much more speed to my seemingly record breaking sprint.

I couldn't stop myself from crashing into Roxas and plowing through Riku's barricade on the door. The three of us crashed to the ground and became a mess of limbs and swearing.

"How could you throw me in there?" Roxas' hands were wrapped around Riku's throat before Axel, the red head with the tattoos under his eyes, threw him off of the Alpha. Riku chuckled a bit before bringing both himself and me up to our feet.

"We better move if we don't want to end up dead." Riku took off running down the corridor where at least fifty people were still leaning against walls crying or hugging their friends or searching for loved ones that would never show up. The nobodies followed their leader immediately, but Roxas and I stayed put. "I wouldn't suggest that, Salt and Pepper!" Riku called to us, presumably calling Roxas salt and me Pepper. Rox and I looked at each other questioningly until we realized what he was talking about. The swinging doors opened and out came at least four flesh-hungry monsters who attacked the first people they saw.

Rox and I had no choice but to chase after the nobodies. We just couldn't stand all the screams in that corridor.


	3. Chapter three

"Where are we going?" I asked after Roxas and I caught up to the nobodies and Riku. We had no choice but to follow them. There was nowhere else for us to go, and we would have been eaten alive in that corridor. We all jogged at a quick pace through the winding halls of the university.

"If you two girls would keep up," He shot Roxas and me a pointed look before turning his head back around, "we're headed to the courtyard. It's open out there and we can form a plan." Riku shoved his hand through his hair to move it out of his eyes while we trotted along. It seemed so pointless that we were running now, but I wasn't going to bother asking why we didn't slow down. I wasn't looking for a smart-ass remark.

"But what about the rest of our friends?" Roxas piped up and asked.

"Look, your friends aren't my problem. All I know is that no one here is dying on my watch today, and the courtyard is safe. So that's where we are going, and that's final." Riku picked up the pace and started running toward the front of the college to end the conversation. It probably would have worked too, if it hadn't been one of his nobodies that protested.

"Riku, I have to go get my girl." Axel skidded to a halt in front of the doors that led to a connecting hallway from our building to the dorms. His gaze darted from the door, to Riku, and then back to the door again, as if he was asking permission and waiting for an answer.

"Oh for the love of God, fine. Everyone head up to your dorms and pack a bag of essentials. Flashlights, preserved food, change of clothes, water bottles, anything you've seen people use in a zombie movie. If this shit is real then we're going to have a hell of a time staying supplied, so grab everything and anything you think will be useful. Alright gang, regroup in ten. Go!" Riku bolted through the doors and the nobodies followed him without fail, all scaling stairs or bursting into their rooms to collect their things. Rox and I stared at each other, unsure of our next move.

"Do we follow him?" I asked warily. _Please say no, please say no. I hate him so much. Just say no._

"I don't think we have a better option right now." Roxas scratched his head and made for our dorm room. _Son of a bitch!_ How did I know he was going to say that? But I couldn't argue with him, we didn't have a better plan. We actually had _no_ plan. I still wasn't sure what was even happening, let alone aware enough to create an organized and well thought out idea.

As I walked to my room (I was getting sick of running) I realized that Riku had said the word Zombie. Were they zombies? Was that what this was? Could it really be? Never in my life did I think that here at my university the Apocalypse would break free. To think it had all started when Pence got sick. It had to have only been an hour, maybe even less. An hour and nearly forty people had been infected, if they weren't dead or already turned.

I decided in my mind that yes, this was in fact the Apocalypse, and yes, it did involve zombies. I just couldn't explain anything I had seen otherwise. There was no other term, no other situation that it could be described as. I watched a human being eat the flesh of another student right in front of me. They came after me with their dragging limbs and their dead eyes.

Those eyes… They were like ghosts in each orb. It was as if something so lively and bright had been there before, but now there was only a silver white film instead. Like a snow fall in late spring, where the flakes cover the beautiful flowers and make the world look so shiny and new. But I couldn't find anything shiny or new in those lifeless eyes. They were void of everything; they contained only nerves and fluid. There wasn't even a trace of soul to be found.

"Hey, I'm done. I'll meet you back by the door." Roxas gave me a quick _thud_ on the back and was out of the room. When had I gotten into our dorm? I didn't know.

Mechanically, as if I wasn't even in control of my motions, I picked up my largest back-pack and began stuffing it full of everything in sight. Granola bars, Gatorade, Red Bull, rope, my pocket-knife, Extra underclothes, extra pants, extra shirts, a toothbrush, some toothpaste, extra socks, another pair of shoes. I fumbled around under my bed for the flash-light we used when the power went out, and remembered I had more batteries in my desk drawer.

It was there in the cluttered drawer that I had to sift my hand through to find little batteries that I also came across an old picture. It was a bit tattered from being carried around and thrown in the drawer so carelessly, but it was still intact. I was beaming, much younger in the photo, but beaming into the camera none the less. Vanitas stood next to me scowling, and our sister Arrith was hugging us close to her face from behind, laughing with her head thrown back. We looked like the typical family. The oldest was clutching us close, lovingly clinging to her baby brothers. The middle child, only a year older than I, grimaced at the affection. Then there was me, the baby of the family, happily content with life and the camera.

Tears hit the photograph before I even knew I was crying, and before I could stop myself I had burst into sobs. I hiccuped and shuddered and slid to the ground by the desk, clinging to my computer chair for support as shaking took over my body and my nose ran mercilessly. I couldn't have been a pretty sight.

Vanitas was gone. My brother, the one who had taught me how to throw a football, and how to swim, and where to find the best books in the library, was dead. He helped me with my multiplication tables, he pushed me over on my bike, he threw a fit when I got something and he didn't. He was always quiet and reserved and constantly annoyed with my presence when we were younger. But he was so smart. He wanted to be a doctor, a _freaking doctor._ He was brilliantly talented and clever. He always knew just how to fix my problems, and he always knew when I wanted to strangle him and throw him off a bridge. I had grown up my whole life with a brother. Now he was gone.

I saw him try to save Pence. He had sprung into action when no one else was there, and what did it get him? His face was chewed to bits, his flesh torn and mangled. What I saw happen can never be unseen. I watched my own _brother_ be murdered by my _friend._ I had grown up with Pence too. He was one of the neighbor kids. We used to play at the park and he was on my little league team. He was a friendly face in a sea of college kids who couldn't give a damn about you, just like the nobodies. But now he was gone too. He was the monster who started this all.

It had to have been at least five minutes of me continuously crying before I heard a voice outside of my room. I refused to answer the door when there was a knock. I couldn't bare it. I was still shaking too hard and my tears wouldn't stop falling on that damn picture.

It was okay though, because the door flew open after Riku made contact to the wood with his foot. Startled, I jumped back a bit, hitting my head on the bottom of the desk. I must have been a sorry sight, sobbing and snotty and holding my head, because even Riku's, of all people's, eyes softened just a bit when he looked at me. But still, it was only a bit.

"Jesus, Pepper. You look just awful." Riku kicked the ground a bit with his boots. They were thick and heavy, black and laced up past the ankle. He had changed into tight-fitting dark wash jeans that clung to his legs and a new T-shirt. This one was black and hugged his skin just like the jeans. He was more muscular than I had thought.

"Sorry," I muttered feebly while wiping my nose on the back of my hand unceremoniously. Riku grimaced a bit and reached for a tissue on top the desk, handing it to me and then taking a few steps back.

"Nah, it's um... It's been a long day. Are you done packing?" He questioned me. After seeing me shake my head no while I sniffled, he awkwardly came further into my dorm and looked around. My bag was on my bed still, some of the items spewing out on the comforter. Riku opened it wider and dug his hand in, sifting through my things. For a moment I was mildly disturbed, seeing as my underwear was in that bag, but I couldn't be bothered to say anything.

His silver hair flew off his shoulders gracefully as he turned to my closet, grabbing my tightest clothes and throwing them at me. He then searched through the room some more while grabbing items I never would have thought to pack. He shoved things like pillow cases and cups into the bag, and then he dumped the contents of the entire medicine cabinet into my back-pack as well. I watched him curiously while drying my eyes and calming my hiccups. Once my pack had been stuffed to the brim, and probably weighed nearly a hundred pounds, Riku deemed it fit for action by throwing it down to my lap.

"Come on, you're holding us up." He grasped my hand and hoisted me up on my feet where I wobbled for a moment before steadying. My tears had stopped and I was only shaking once in a while. I felt horribly embarrassed for having Riku catch me in such a moment of weakness, but what else could I have done? I was in shock. Any normal human being would have reacted the same way I did, I'm certain of it. I just hated that it was Riku who had to find me. I couldn't stand him.

The silverette and I had a rivalry that went back to freshman year when we had a general English class together. I remember I had dozed off for a few moments because I had worked in the library for most of the night reorganizing the books as part of my work-study program. I would have been fine if it weren't for Riku, who was sitting next to me in the crowded lecture hall. He slammed his book on the counter my head was lying on, creating a ruckus so loud that it jolted me awake in front of what was practically the entire freshman student body. It should have been a harmless prank, but when I screamed so loud that several girls in the class shrieked in terrified response, I was kicked out for causing a disruption. Riku never apologized and I never forgave him. It was petty and foolish of course, but it ruined my entire college year. I never fit in after that, and the only friend I made easily was Roxas. He was the one who introduced me to Pence, Hayner, and Olette. Selphie joined our group after she transferred from a different university.

"Riku, I have to find my friends." I stated in between sniffles here and there. He looked at me with an expression that mimicked extreme pain, then groaned deep in his throat.

"Okay, fine. We'll find the rest of your friends if it means you'll stop crying." He rolled his eyes and we left my dorm through the busted doorway, heading to Hayner's dorm in hopes that he would be there. With just the two of us it was quiet and tense, but I had no other choice but to stick with Riku. I may have hated him but he was proving useful for formulating plans.

"Do you hear that?" I asked after stopping to listen for a moment. I tried to train my ears in on the direction the noise was coming from, but I couldn't seem to find it until it was too late.

A girl who had turned the corner behind us was coming full tilt with that dead-white film on her eyes. Riku saw the zombie a second after I did and quickly assessed our options before throwing himself, and me for that matter, into a dorm room that had an open door. He slammed it closed with all of his weight and locked it just as she made impact with the wood, knocking Riku back a few feet.

"What do we do?" I asked in a flurry of adrenaline. My heart was pumping and my body had fully recovered from my sobbing, ready for action.

"I don't know if she's going to leave us alone!" Riku pushed all of his weight against the door again as the girl continuously rammed her body into it, clawing and moaning behind the door.

"I think that's the least of our worries…" I said, terrified. Riku turned to give me a questioned look before changing his expression from quizzical to horrified.

Crawling on the floor toward us was a zombie nearly twice my size and both of his legs eaten down to the bone.

"We're trapped." Riku slowly stated the obvious as the zombie came closer.


	4. Chapter four

I moved away from the monster dragging himself toward me and Riku. He moaned and snarled at us; his mouth was dripping with dark blood. I backed into Riku, only putting about seven feet of distance between me and the zombie on the ground. The door groaned as the girl on the other side clawed and scratched at it.

"Trade!" Riku shouted in my ear. I didn't understand what he meant until he physically moved me and shoved me against the door. The dorms didn't lock, so it was only my weight and the feeble hook keeping the wooden slab closed. Riku began digging in my pack as I pressed against the door even harder.

"What are you grabbing?" I asked as he threw things to the ground in a flurry. He seemed desperate to find something, but he couldn't.

"Where is your pocket knife? I saw it in here before!" Riku pulled more things out of my back-pack. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I released my weight from the door to shrug the pack off so he'd have an easier time looking. The zombie on the other side slammed against the handle, flying the door open and into the both me and Riku, knocking us to the ground. She only got an arm in before I kicked it closed with my foot.

"Screw this!" Riku rolled out of the way just as the floor zombie reached for his long hair. He quickly got to his feet and threw his body on the door, causing the girl's arm to snap. He slammed into the door one more time and it severed completely when the wood closed into the frame.

Amazed, I watched as Riku then spun to face the other zombie, who was dangerously close to me as I shuffled to my knees instead of my stomach. He used the toe of his boot to kick its head back first, and then the heel to bash in the temple. The zombie made a horrible noise as Riku assaulted it with his shoe but it kept coming after me none the less. It took about four more aggressive stomps on the head for its skull to crack and the zombie to finally still.

The door flew open once more. Riku quickly turned and put his weight on it, struggling with the zombie attempting to get in.

"Sora, help me!" Riku commanded, and surprisingly enough to me, I instantly rose to my feet and pressed on the door with both palms splayed and my toes digging into the carpet that was now covered in blood and gore. Together we pushed the door closed once more. Riku slid down the wood and sat with his back against it, panting slightly. I continued to hold it closed while he rested a moment.

"Thanks for saving me," I muttered, not exactly thrilled that I needed saving in the first place. I was a twenty year old college kid, not some little girl.

"Well, we aren't exactly _saved_ yet, so I wouldn't start your Oscar speech right this instance." Riku rolled his eyes before pulling the pack closer to him and digging through it. _What an ass,_ I grumbled to myself. All he had to do was accept my thanks, not shoot it down with a snarky comment.

Before long Riku had grabbed what he was looking for, my pocket knife, and had started assembling my pack. He shook his head as he shoved in my clothes and necessities.

"We have to start keeping the most useful items toward the top for easy access. But I guess now we know." He zipped the back closed and threw it at me. I fumbled to put it back on while he held the door for me.

"So what's the plan, Stan?" I asked, and then mentally smacked myself for saying something so cheesy and awful. Riku raised an eyebrow and scowled.

"First of all, you're going to cut that cutesy shit out right now. I'm in no mood for that. Second of all, we're going to let this bitch in, since she seems to want to party." Riku put his hand on the door-knob, ready to open it. I grabbed his wrist and threw it down, staring at him in disbelief.

"Are you insane? She'll tear us both to shreds!" I exclaimed.

"Correction, Pepper. She'll tear _you_ to shreds if I let her. And it's really a fifty-fifty chance. We'll see how I feel once I open the door." Riku chuckled a bit and shoved me out of the way. I ended up behind his outstretched arm that held the blade of my pocket knife shining in the light. Terrified, I cowered behind his body, only slightly ashamed of myself for being such a little pansy.

Riku turned the knob and let the zombie stumble into the room as we hid behind the door. She walked a few feet forward before sniffing us out and turning in our general direction.

She was absolutely beautiful. Her eyes, though dead and misted over like all the others who had turned, were large and must have once shone like the sun. Her hair was delicately curled, as if she had spent hours making it perfect this morning before class. Her make-up was natural and appealing, and her clothes showed that she had money and good-taste. But here she was now, mouth dripping and eyes white, hoping to eat the both of us and be on her merry way.

She was only a few feet from us when Riku lunged for her, stabbing her directly in the eye. He knocked the zombie a few steps backward from the force of impact and they tumbled onto the bed. Riku yanked out the knife and stabbed the other eye, making a terrible squelching noise that made me want to throw up. He repeated the process several times before finding his work sufficient and wiping the blade off on the comforter over the bed. He then turned to me, threw me the knife with the blade open, and then chuckled when I jumped out of the way.

"Are you trying to kill me?" I asked bewildered. I just didn't get this guy. One second he was saving my life, and the next he was throwing daggers at me.

"Oh Pepper, that's funny. If I was trying to get rid of you, I'd have let Sally over here do it for me" Riku motioned with his thumb to the zombie sprawled on the bed.

"Sally? Did you really just give her a name?" I was disgusted.

"Sure, why wouldn't I? They were people, after all. Her real name was Jessica, if you're interested in knowing. She was in my criminal law class. But now she's dead, and that's all there is to it." Riku strolled out of the dorm room casually, as if everything he had just said wasn't completely and utterly disturbing.

By the time we made it back to the entrance of the resident dorms there were only a few other people already waiting. Roxas, Kairi, and two nobodies, Larxene and Zexion, all stood by the doors, none of them saying anything at all. Roxas glared daggers at them while they shifted their gaze on anything but him.

"Well I guess we're still missing Axel, Demyx, Luxord, and whoever you two wanted to find." Riku stated, breaking the silence. I nodded my head.

"You're going to let us find our friends?" Roxas asked Riku warily.

"Well, of course. Then you two are on your own. I can't keep saving Pepper's ass every time something makes a scary noise and he hyperventilates." Riku smirked in my general direction.

"Hey, what's your problem? You didn't have to help me, you know! So don't bitch now just because you're dealing with your choices." I crossed my arms and turned away from him just as any respectable five-year old would. Roxas rolled his eyes at the two of us and tried to mend things.

"Fine. Just help us get to our friends and we'll be out of your hair." Rox walked over to stand by me while we waited for the others to show up.

It seemed like hours that we stood by the doors, occasionally ducking down to avoid a zombie walking on the other side of the glass, or re-configuring our supplies to see what was most useful like Riku had suggested. Eventually Demyx and Luxord came with their packs and apologized for their tardiness, their hair a bit tousled and their clothes were different. Riku raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything.

It was only after a few more minutes of waiting that Riku decided he could no longer sit idle and was going to go search for Axel. Luckily his red-headed friend came running around the corner beckoning someone to follow him before Riku could separate from the group. Puffing and panting, a pretty blonde girl in white jeans and a tight-fitting pink tube-top rounded the corner and then grasped hands with Axel.

"You've got to be shitting me." Roxas hissed as the pair trotted up to us. She looked a bit different from the last time I saw her, but Namine was as beautiful as ever, and smiled at me happily.

"Hi there Sora! Long time no see, eh?" She asked before briefly pulling me in for a hug. She then turned her attention to Roxas, who tightly clenched Kairi's hand. "Hi Roxy…" She let her eyes fall to her feet as she waved hello. Roxas practically growled at her.

"Roxy?" Kairi questioned.

"Don't ask." I muttered, immediately feeling the tension in the air. Axel seemed clueless as he pulled Namine close to him, and then cheerfully asked Riku what our next step was.

"Well, now that we're all here, let's go find these guy's friends before they throw a fit." Riku motioned for Luxord to hand him his base-ball bat and once well equipped the silverette pushed the door open ever so slightly. He peeked out and checked to see if the coast was clear. He motioned for us to follow him out of the dorms.

In the hallway there was little noise. No one was crying or calling for help like in the resident hall. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach knowing that we hadn't tried to help anyone, but I for some reason I knew better than to suggest it to Riku. I knew deep down that he wasn't interested in charity. I wondered why he was even helping me and Roxas.

We moved as quietly as possible toward the courtyard. Occasionally we could hear a scream or two in the distance or behind closed doors, but we kept on moving for the outside. It seemed like a logical choice, going outdoors, seeing as there was much less chance of being trapped in a dorm room with two zombies trying to devour you out there. I couldn't argue with Riku's logic on that one.

"I'm going to try to call Hayner," Roxas whispered to me, and I nodded to show I approved. He whipped out his phone and began dialing before Axel snatched it from his hand. Roxas gave him a look and tried to reach for it back.

Axel made a rather obnoxious _Shh_ noise before handing Roxas his phone back, and then pressed forward with the rest of the group.

"What was even the point of that? Did he think I was going to scream into the phone?" Roxas rolled his eyes and gave Axel a look of contempt. I shrugged my shoulders at Roxas' outburst.

After a few seconds of dialing Hayner picked up, excitedly talking into the phone with a hushed and hurried voice. Roxas explained where we were and who we were with, "_You're with _them? _Gross."_, and that we'd come find him as soon as possible.

"We have to turn around." I crept up to Riku and whispered in his ear. He swatted my face away and glared.

"Why in the world would we do that?" Riku asked with an irritated voice.

"Because you said we'd go get my friends, and they're the other way." I stomped my foot a bit. Riku shushed me.

"Would you stop that? Do you want to attract those things to us? And I know I said we were going to take you there, but it's not safe. I can't allo-" Just as Riku began to go back on his word I realized I had enough of his bullshit. I was sick of him thinking that he could treat Roxas and I like shit just because we weren't part of his nobodies. I threw my head back and I hollered into the quiet corridor, listening to my voice echo endlessly down the hall. Riku slammed my mouth closed with his hand before shoving me backward.

"You idiot!" He shoved me again, only this time I shoved back, ready for a fight. I wasn't going to let this cocky son of a bitch push me around.

There was suddenly a chorus of moans and footsteps coming from the hall to our right, which was the direction we needed to go to get to the courtyard. Riku stopped shoving me long enough to listen and I stared at him with a spiteful expression.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to turn back, huh?" I smirked triumphantly while he swore under his breath and shoved me on the shoulders. He then took off sprinting in the direction we needed to go to get Hayner and the girls. Roxas and I exchanged high-fives as we followed the nobodies away from the zombies on our tails.


	5. Chapter five

**Author's note:**

**Hello! I hope you've enjoyed this story so far, I know I have enjoyed writing it! I'd like to clarify that this chapter will be the end of the "I remember the time my college became the start of the zombie apocalypse and I was forced into joining my rival group to survive" section of this story, and the next chapter will begin the "Let's see how this all pans out, and how they've all learned to cope or not cope" section of the story, which I hope will be even more interesting and action filled. Thank you for reading and reviewing, and I hope you have a great day.**

**~Eliza**

* * *

Hayner and the girls were hiding out in the library's copy room. Hayner told us that he had taken them there when they couldn't stop crying and he didn't want them to be heard or found. It was a decently good idea, until all of us were trapped in the copy room together with four zombies roaming the library outside, practically sitting on top of one another.

"In my defense, this plan was better when you guys were coming to our rescue…" Hayner said with a small laugh. Even I had to glare at him.

"I cannot believe that I'm trapped here with you people." Riku rubbed his temple as we all crouched down on our knees to avoid being seen through the window.

"Hey, it's just like old times, Riku!" I threw in my two cents and gave him a solid pat on the back before rolling my eyes and sitting down. I was getting annoyed at an alarming rate.

"Well, what do we do?" Axel looked to Riku. The silverette furrowed his brow in thought and didn't respond right away. Everyone stared at him expectantly.

"I say our best option is to wait until they roam out of the library." Riku stated and then plopped down to sit instead of squat. Everyone else followed his lead. Namine sat in Axel's lap though, twirling his flaming hair through her fingers. Roxas eyed them with envy.

"That sounds like a terrible plan." I piped up and locked eyes with Riku, who glared at me.

"Excuse me?" He asked. His tone was snarky and judgmental.

"All I'm saying is that more of them will come and we'll be stuck in here with an even worse chance of getting out with everyone alive. That is your goal, isn't it? Keeping us all alive?" I raised an eyebrow warily.

"Yeah, yeah I guess it is." Riku's voice had less of a threatening tone now. "So what's your plan Pepper?" He asked with what appeared to be genuine interest.

"Well, you still have Luxord's bat. We could bash through the glass in the door frame. Then there is a concentrated entry point where they'd have to attack us through, meaning that we could get to them and take them out with less chance of them biting or scratching us. I'm going with the general assumption that bites and scratched are bad." I shrugged my shoulders and let my idea simmer in.

"That's and awful idea." Riku stated, just as Axel said "It could work!", and I feared all hell would break loose.

The two gave each other a look before arguing. It seemed clear to me that the nobodies normally did what Riku told them to without much question involved. They never really had a reason to doubt him before, but this was a matter of life and death, and matters of life and death seem to raise protest rates.

"Riku, it's a solid plan. We can't sit in here forever." Axel tried to spoon feed that he was disagreeing with Riku by giving it to his leader in small doses.

"We could all get killed, or hurt." The Alpha was still resisting. We didn't have time for this back and forth bullshit. We needed to start moving; I was becoming highly claustrophobic in the tight copy room.

Taking matters into my own hands I snatched the bat from behind Riku and hopped out of the way before he could grab my ankle. He yelled for me to stop but it was already too late. I had rammed the bat into the glass, shattering it everywhere. The crashing noise attracted the zombies, and they made their way over to the narrow entry into the copy room.

"I am getting so tired of your shit, Pepper." Riku leapt to his feet and whipped out my knife, ready for action. Olette and Selphie hid behind Hayner and Roxas while the latter of the two boys protected Kairi as well. Demyx and Axel got up to stand behind us wielding long shards of shattered glass. I was glad for my bat at this point, seeing as both nobodies had gloves on, and I would have been torn to shreds.

"Oh Riku, don't be that way." I smiled at him with my lips shining and my teeth glistening. I poured all the sugar and honey I could manage into the smile to piss him off. He stared at me for a moment, taking it in, and then closed his eyes and turned away, hissing.

The first zombie got to the window then. Riku pushed me backward while it tried to get in through the opening, its entire upper body leaning in and reaching for the Silverette. I took the bat and let it crash down on the zombie's head, snapping his neck. He hung in the doorway, his arms still thrashing around violently. I held one back with the bat while Riku stabbed him in the eyes with the knife. I had to give Riku credit; he was deadly accurate with that thing.

"See? Not so bad." I gave him another smile that had his eyes rolling in contempt. There was something about making him angry that just felt _good_ to me. It was like I was slowly getting him back for all the years of pain he had caused me. Being the weird kid was never any fun.

We made short work of the other undead between the four of us. When the last one had cluttered the window space and then slumped to the ground unmoving we opened the door and hurried out of the cramped copy room. Luckily enough there were no other zombies in sight.

"Stick close. Let's get outside." Riku said, motioning for all of us to follow him. Roxas, Hayner, and I quickly exchanged looks. Should we stay with them? Should we go? So far we were managing just fine in a group, and maybe there really was strength in numbers. I didn't know how well the three of us and the girls would fare on our own. So grabbing Selphie's hand, I decided we'd follow for now. Not because I wanted anything more to do with Riku and the nobodies, but because I couldn't live with myself if something happened to the terrified girl looking back at me.

Unorganized and untrained, the thirteen of us noisily and hurriedly made our way toward the courtyard once more. Axel and Demyx kept their long and unused glass shards and held them out for protection. Riku didn't ask for the bat back yet, so I continued to hold it with both hands, ready to swing. The silverette held the blade out in front of him at throat level.

It was slow-going to the courtyard. Every now and then we'd have to quickly hide in a classroom or locker rooms while a horde of zombies passed by. One time there seemed to be nearly twenty of them all moving without purpose in a mass. Namine peered out of the window and shook her head.

"They're all turning so fast. How can there be so many?" She asked to no one in particular. She was spared the horrors of the cafeteria scene since she had been sleeping in her dorm at the time; yet I almost felt bad for her that she hadn't seen it. This must have all been so unreal to her. I had watched it all happen and unfold, quite a few of us in the group had. But she was still in awe of the monsters lurking outside.

"Let's go." Riku broke the silence and led us out.

By the time we made it to the courtyard, there were already a hundred other students with the same idea as us. It was crowded and reminded me terribly of the corridor outside the cafeteria.

"Riku, I have a bad feeling about this. I really think we should get out of here." I said, vocalizing my thoughts. Warily, I looked around at all the people regrouping outside. Some of them had straggled through the doors like us, but others were jumping out of windows and coming out of the tunnel that led all around campus.

"I'm getting the same vibe. Let's just see if there is anyone we know out here, and then go." Riku agreed with me quite readily which was something I wasn't expecting. Maybe he was starting to respect my opinion a bit more. "Come on Pepper, hold my hand. Daddy doesn't want you to get lost!" Riku laughed to himself before hiking up his back-pack and moving on. _Respect your opinion… Yeah right._

We searched through the crowds of people that seemed to me growing exponentially. No matter where we looked we couldn't seem to find anyone we knew or could help. We hadn't seen anyone that people were looking for, or they had been turned already. When a girl begged Riku for information about the girl he had killed, Jessica, Riku's face turned slate grey as he had to explain to her that she was turned and long gone.

There was a fleeting moment of kindness that I'll never forget Riku gave out. The girl began to cry at the thought of her best friend undead, and when she seemed unable to even stand on her own two feet, Riku showed no hesitation in wrapping her into his arms. He barely knew her. Apparently they had a few classes together here and there, but I had never seen them together before. Riku accepted her into his arms like a brother would to a sister. He smoothed her hair while she cried and softly whispered things to her that I couldn't understand.

For a moment I was jealous. I had been in worse shape than this girl not even three hours ago, and yet all Riku was willing to offer me was a tissue. Here he was, throwing all of his heart and compassion to a girl who he barely knew, and when I had needed someone, _anyone_, Riku refused to be there for me. I regretted coming along with his group, I hated him more than anyone in the world. I knew the feeling as mutual now.

I didn't have too long to angst before all hell broke loose in the courtyard. A girl who was nearly four stories up came screaming to her window begging for help. She was suddenly and sharply pulled back inside, and all we could hear were more terrorized shrieks before she appeared again. Only this time, instead of pleading for help, she plummeted out of the opening and came spiraling to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Roxas exclaimed, along with nearly a dozen other people in the crowds. People ran to surround her then, probably hoping to help her. When Riku began backing away I found myself following his lead and heading toward the outskirts of the courtyard.

"I told you I didn't want to be here." I said to him. He smirked a bit before backing away even faster. He never turned his body away from the action though, and a horrific scene played out before us.

We watched, helplessly, as the horde of twenty or so zombies came trotting through the automatic doors into the courtyard, attacking everyone in sight. More of the monsters fell from the girl's fourth story window, tearing anyone below to shreds instantly. Many people tried to escape but found it was too late; they were trapped in the throngs of people and couldn't get away. Those that did escape, like us, ran for safety as fast as we could.

"Where are we going?" Axel asked as he clung to Namine's hand. Roxas swiftly grabbed Kairi's in response to seeing them with their fingers entwined. I kept my grip on Selphie tight as she trembled.

"Anywhere but here!" Riku exclaimed as we dashed in-between building all over campus. It seemed that only people who were alive we following us, thankfully, and eventually we came to a parking lot on the west side of the educational center. Riku jammed his hand into his pocket and dug out his keys, pressing the clicker so that a car in the distance roared to life. I eyed him curiously while we ran to his larger-than-life truck. He whipped open the door on the flat-bed and ushered nearly everyone inside. I passed Selphie off to Hayner as Riku closed the door behind them. The topper on the truck was large enough for them all to sit comfortably, but they were still probably cramped.

For a moment I thought Riku was going to leave me behind. I stood dumbfounded as he hauled it over to the driver's side of the truck and threw it into gear. I watched as the black monster of a vehicle lurched to life and drove quickly in a circle until the passenger's door was lined up a few feet in front of my face. Riku threw the door open and stared at me expectantly. I was frozen in place.

"Are you dumb or something? Get in the god damn truck!" Riku had to shout at me before I found my legs moving forward. I climbed up on the leather seat and slammed the door behind me. Riku crashed his foot onto the gas pedal and we tore away from the rest of the parked cars. Several other students had made it safely, but a majority of them were trapped and screaming as they were tore open on the asphalt. Riku, transfixed on the scene of gore in front of him, accidentally drove over a curbed median and tossed everyone in the back around.

"Drive much?" I asked him sarcastically. He turned his attention back to the road while swearing under his breath.

"Look, Pepper, I can't keep doing this. If you're with us, then you're with us. And if you're with us, that means you're with me. So no more of this _I hate you Riku,_ bullshit, okay? I think I have saved your ass enough times today to have earned a little respect." The silverette's tone was as serious as I had ever heard it.

"Alright, I get it." I said, staring out the window and refusing to look at him. There was something about the way that he acknowledged that I disliked him but never apologized for what he did that I hated. But what more could I do? I was going to have to get along with Riku whether I liked it or not.

"Thank you. I can't have you contradicting me in front of everyone all the time. It's bad for morale." His grip on the wheel loosened as if a weight was lifted off of his chest.

"What was your major?" I questioned. I figured if I had to come to like this guy, I better know a bit more about him.

"Law Enforcement… I was going to be a cop." Riku smiled a bit.

"Going to?"

"Yeah, doesn't seem much use now. The world is going to go to shit anyway."

"Well, you're useful to us. The whole reason we even stayed was because we figured we had a better chance with you than on our own."

"Thanks Pepper. I guess you're right."

"So, where are we going, anyway?" I asked as we exited on to the freeway with all the other people who didn't know the world was coming to an end yet.

"I know a place a bit south of here. It should be safer. It's more rural, less people, less problems."

"Shouldn't we tell somebody? Like, call the police and let them know what happened?"

"And tell them what? That zombies took over the university? I bet they get that prank call ten times a school year."

"I don't know. Couldn't we lie? Tell them there was a stabbing or a shooting or something dumb like that?"

"Yeah, I guess you could give it a try."

So I did. They sent out a unit to the campus right away, and within forty minutes Riku's radio was teeming with stories all about the upcoming apocalypse. They warned people to stay indoors and not let anyone inside; to stock up on supplies as quickly as possible and then stay in a safe area until the army could contain the infection.

They never could. The campus became over-run with the dead and soon it began spreading into the city. The whole world went to shit just as Riku had predicted. We stopped by a few grocery stores and other shops to stock up on nearly a thousand dollars (all we could pool between the thirteen of us as college kids) worth of supplies and clambered back into Riku's truck.

We drove for days until we reached Riku's secluded cabin in the deep forest. Once everyone had stretched outside of the truck I walked over to Riku. Our relationship wasn't much better by any means, but there was at least an interaction or two that wasn't spiteful.

"So, do you think it's over?" I crossed my arms and watched as he slammed the back of the truck closed.

"It'll never be over, Sora. It's barely begun." We walked together into the screened off porch and out of the hot sun. We had a lot of work to do.


	6. The Cabin

_Two months later_

Roxas and I crept along the outskirts of the forest. We silently communicated by hand motions and mouthing commands to one another. It was slow going work and miserably tedious as well, but we were near completing another trap around the perimeter of Riku's cabin. I held the razor-sharp wire with thick gloves on. Roxas walked a path in front of me that showed me where to attach it to trees. It had taken two weeks of preparation and execution, but Roxas and I were finally near the end.

"Twenty feet more," Roxas signaled to me with his hands as we moved along at a snail's pace. Riku was adamant about every step being perfect and if he found out that we screwed it up, he'd kill us.

We all have to pull our own weight here at the cabin. We had spent the last two months setting up traps everywhere. I remember helping Riku and the nobodies repair the silverette's fence the second day we came here. It was hot, back-breaking work that seemed to go on forever, but by the time we finished the Cabin was nearly secure. We then dug a trench around the outside and set the girls to whittle down logs and sticks for spears. Riku was only satisfied with that after nearly a hundred spikes were shooting out of the trench. That took us nearly three weeks to complete, even with all of us working on it.

Riku refused to let us work at night. It was the first day that we got here when Riku laid down the law and told us all there would be rules we would have to follow if we wanted to stay at the cabin.

**First house rule**: You're only as safe as you are useful, so get to work.

**Second house rule**: Supplies and tools are for public use. Alternating group members will ration out food each week to avoid bias. All private packs are off-limits unless permission has been given to touch them.

**Third house rule**: Lights out at dusk. You're inside by the time the sun sets or you're outside all night.

**Fourth house rule**: Only candles past nine in the evening. All shutters and windows much be secured closed with both their wooden slats and our protective measures. Anyone who fails to secure their part of the cabin at night will be reprimanded.

**Fifth house rule:** We are a team. I don't care who you are, where you came from, or what your past is like. None of that matters now. You're here, you're helping, and you're going to get along.

Selphie had made a little sign out of wood and crushed berries to hang in the entryway of the cabin that had all the rules written on it. Riku gave her one of the friendliest smiles I had ever seen come from him and he had been particularly nice to her ever since. He even hung the wooden slab up himself, whistling while he did so. I think it was one of the most normal things he had done since we got here.

Luckily enough it was the interaction between Selphie and Riku that helped the rest of the group start to get along. Roxas didn't glare every time Axel walked into the room, Kairi and Larxene actually had become quite good friends, and even Riku and I weren't at each other's throats all the time. There was something about having to work together to survive that brought you closer to a person.

Roxas and I finished up our trap setting and stood back to look at our hard work. We exchanged a low-five before ducking under the razor wire. There were two strands going around the perimeter of the cabin, one at neck level and the other at torso height. Riku had suggested the both so that if we didn't decapitate a zombie, we at least hindered its ability to move tenfold. He and Axel had put up the one at head level, seeing as they were both taller than Roxas and I, and left it to the two of us to put up the remaining wire.

The walk back to the Cabin, nearly a two-hour trek, was excruciatingly slow. We had to avoid traps everywhere and walk as quietly as possible. Riku didn't want to attract any zombies to the outside of the Cabin with noise.

As difficult as it was at first I was glad that I chose to come along with Riku and the nobodies. The girls felt safe here and had new friends to talk to. Roxas had to face his anger with Namine and learn how to be polite and interact with her and Axel anyway. I had my fun with Hayner and Rox, and occasionally I'd even enjoy the time I spent with the nobodies and Riku as well. It was hard work here, and it seemed as if it was never done, but we were safer than anywhere I would have thought to bring us.

"Hey guys! Better hurry, dinner's almost ready!" Olette called from the screened in porch once Rox and I made it inside the gate and then hoisted each other over the fence. I let my pack fall from my shoulders and carried it with my left hand as I wiped my brow. It was hot outside. We were in the later months of spring and all the garden's vegetables and fruits were ripe and ready to be picked before the summer's crops had to be planted. Namine and Selphie were in charge of the garden by choice, and the rest of the girls occasionally helped out too. Normally work wasn't distributed by gender, but none of us guys knew anything about gardening.

I locked the porch behind us and turned my attention to the sun streaming in through the trees. It was nearing dusk, my least favorite part of the night, and I figured I might as well get a head start on brining in all the patio furniture. Riku had a strict rule of making the cabin look abandoned, even if no one could see over the fence inside. When I asked him why we bothered, he simply gave me a look and a snarky comment.

"_Well, why bother with any of this then? Do you want me to just tear the fence down so a breeze rolls in? Or how about I put up a big sign on the roof that says 'Attention survivors, be sure to raid this cabin and kill everyone inside!'?" _ I remember being quite curt with him the rest of the night.

I dragged all the chairs and tools inside with Roxas' help. After putting everything in its proper place (not blocking any windows, doors, or exit ways, per Riku's demand) we closed the screen door behind us and then chained it shut. The real door was thick and sturdy, with only eleven chains, locks, and bolts keeping it closed at night.

"Pepper, come give me a hand with this!" Riku called to us from the bathroom and I quickly darted away to help him, leaving Roxas in charge of shutting the door up tight. When I found Riku he was nailing in a small piece of wood to the cabin's wall, just above the light switch. He motioned for me to take the nail out from between his teeth, since both his hands were busy holding up the wood.

I reached up and took hold of the nail wedged in Riku's teeth. I had never really taken a good look at his mouth before, but now that I was so close I found myself unable to break my gaze. His teeth were pearly white and straight after years of what could only be braces, for it seemed impossible anyone could be born with that nice of teeth. His lips were narrow and thinner than mine, but for some reason it seemed to fit his face just fine. When I pulled the nail out from his teeth he immediately licked his lips, his tongue darting out and dancing across the smooth surface.

A shot of heat dipped through my body. Blushing, I quickly put the nail where Riku told me to and turned away immediately after so he wouldn't see my face. _What the hell is wrong with you?_ I thought to myself, embarrassed. _That's Riku!_

"Thanks Sora. Let's eat." Riku smiled at me for a brief second and then picked up his hammer. "Oh, nearly forgot." He then pulled a candlestick holder out from under the sink and put it on the newly assembled shelf. "The girls were complaining about having to pee in the dark at night." He rolled his eyes and left the bathroom then, leaving me standing there alone.

I shook my head and tried to rid my cheeks of their blushed tone. I stared in the mirror at my wide cerulean eyes and spiky brown hair. What was I doing, looking at Riku like that? We were stuck in this cabin together for survival, not anything else. Besides, it was Riku! Mean, nasty, controlling Riku! I decided that an incident like that would never happen again. There was no reason getting all excited over something that had only happened twice.

"Sora! Dinner!" Luxord called to me from the hallway. The bathroom was at the end of the hall, with bedrooms all down the sides until you got to the open kitchen and dining room. The living room was through an archway and had another bathroom attached to it, along with the master bedroom that Riku used. He never really asked for it, nor did he claim it immediately, but it was the time I convinced him to sleep there that I first felt that wave of heat run through me and blushed just like in the bathroom moments ago.

I had found him sleeping out on the couch in the living room one night when I went to get a drink of water from the kitchen. I shared a room with Roxas and Hayner and they were both dead asleep when I crept out into the hall with my candle. Through the archway I could see a shock of silver hair on the couch, and snuck into the living room to gently wake Riku.

He sat up immediately and nearly killed me with my pocket knife. I had never asked for it back so he still kept it on him at all times, but I had no idea he slept with it in his hand, blade out. Luckily enough my reflexes are faster than a Zombie's, so I had enough time to jump back.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed and then covered my mouth hoping I hadn't woken anyone else up. Riku's eyes blinked and then settled on me before he put the knife down. I ran a hand through his hair and then left out a breath.

"What did you do that for? I could have killed you." Riku shifted his legs off the couch so that he was sitting instead of lying down and motioned for me to sit by him.

"You almost did kill me," I laughed.

"So what brings you out here Pepper? Did you have a bad dream?" Riku smirked at me and then rubbed his eyes and stretched.

"I was getting a drink and saw you out here. I never knew you slept on the couch." I said.

"Well, I'm the first one up and the last one to sleep. How could you know?" Riku mused. I rolled my eyes.

"Why don't you sleep in the bedroom not even twenty feet from you?" I questioned while setting my candle down on the coffee table in front of the couch. We weren't allowed to use lights, so we had to carry candles everywhere. Our candle holders collected the wax from the candles we burned and we could melt it back out to make more. Riku was big on conserving and not being wasteful.

"I can't hear as well in there." Riku confessed. He cracked his back and then hissed in pain.

"Well, you're no good to us if you're sleeping on a couch. You'll be sore and fatigued and get us killed." I got up and forced Riku up with me.

It was then that I realized Riku was shirtless. His skin was pale and in my candle light it had a soft and inviting glow to it. His muscles were clearly defined and had become more prominent after weeks of hard labor outside the cabin. His abdominal section was tight and flexed as I brought him to his feet. There wasn't a trace of hair to be seen except for a small trail leading down into his pajama bottoms.

It was then that the heat hit me for the first time. Alarmed, I nearly let go of Riku's hand and dropped him on the ground, but he steadied on his feet before I could do any damage.

"I guess you're right Pepper. Maybe there's a reason I keep you around." Riku smiled softly and yawned before throwing his blanket over his shoulder and sauntering into the bedroom. His back muscles faded out of the glow of my candle and sunk into the darkness of the room, leaving me flushed and forgotten far behind.

I closed my eyes and tried desperately to rid myself of my blush before walking from the hallway into the kitchen where everyone bustled about getting ready for dinner. Luxord and Demyx set the table, Axel and Namine were pouring drinks, and Olette and Hayner were setting out dishes filled with food on the counter. It was hard work feeding thirteen people twice a day.

"You alright, Sora? You look a little red." Riku walked past me with a dish full of freshly made bread and raised an eyebrow at me. Everyone in the room turned their eyes to my face.

_If I could just die now I'd be so happy._ I smiled nervously and took my place at the table next to Roxas.


	7. Chapter seven

Roxas threw me a fork from the counter and reached to do the same with a knife before Kairi swatted his hand.

"You can't just throw knives." She gave Roxas a look before scooping up the silverware and walking it over to the table. The spiky blonde stuck his tongue out at her back.

"Oh Kairi, that's no fun at all. We all have to die from something. Sora's can just be a knife to the eye!" Larxene joked with the auburn haired girl. I glared at the platinum blonde playfully.

"Well, at least I'll be _alive_ when I'm stabbed in the eye. But if I _were_ to become a zombie I'd be after you Larx." She laughed when I made my empty threat.

"I wouldn't worry too much about him. Pepper over here can barely lift the axe above his head." Riku gave Larxene a wink before sitting down at the head of the table. The other end remained empty since there were an odd number of people.

"As exciting as it is to listen to you guys banter, I'm starving. Can we eat?" Hayner stretched back in his chair as the last members of the group settled down to dinner. Riku raised his glass and the rest of us did the same.

"I want to thank you guys for all the hard work you've put in. I know this isn't exactly ideal, and I know it's been a rough couple of months, but you've all really impressed me with how readily you worked together to get us through. At first I wasn't too sure how the thirteen of us were going to get along. Now I know that we're going to make it." Riku finished his toast and took a sip of his water. He refused to let us drink soda, wine, beer, or even juice. It was water day in and day out to keep us hydrated and healthy.

"To us!" Kairi exclaimed as she raised her glass high in the air.

"No, to family!" Namine corrected her and we all took sips of our water.

There was something about that dinner that changed us. Maybe it was the way Riku praised our work. Maybe it was the way Roxas smiled at Namine for the first time in months. Or maybe, just maybe, it was that we didn't feel trapped here anymore, we felt welcomed. No matter what shifted the group's attitude I was thankful for it.

We all worked together to clear the table after we had eaten. It took quite a bit of elbow grease to crank the well into giving us enough water, and then scrub, rinse, and dry each plate, cup, and piece of silverware for thirteen people. Luckily over the past two months we had created a system to it that made everything go by quickly and easily so we could set out to complete our evening tasks before the sun set.

Roxas and I climbed the stairs to the attic and wove our way through all of Riku's family's things that we had stored up here when we first came. He never said anything but I knew deep down that Riku didn't want to see the possessions that reminded him that his family was out there somewhere trying to fight for their lives. Maybe he didn't want to face the truth; they could have already lost their lives long ago.

I understood why he felt that way. I still had Arrith and my parents to wonder about, even if my brother was gone. Over time I had learned to try to cope with Vanitas' death. It still hurt more than anything I had ever experienced before, but at least I could go through my day without wanting to hide away and give up on living. Van wouldn't have wanted that for me. I was always riding on him to be more outgoing and positive, so how could I even forgive myself if I became pessimistic and hid away?

Rox reached the far end of the attic before I did and pulled the window closed. He then took the large piece of wood we had cut to fit the window and pressed it inside the sill, blocking out half of the light in the room. The curtains were pulled in front of that and shaded the attic even more. I executed the same process for my window, showering us in darkness for a moment before Roxas struck a match and lit his candle.

We walked back down the stairs to find the rest of the group waiting for us at the bottom with their candles out and unlit. Rox handed his flame off to each person so they could set their candles ablaze and soon we were all covered in a soft glow. This was my least favorite part of the evening. We had nearly an hour of sunlight left but Riku was far too cautious, he didn't want to risk light letting through for the undead to see when it grew dark.

I followed the silverette on his rounds while he inspected everyone's work. Did they miss a crevice? Were all the curtains drawn? Were the windows open to let out sound? Riku made sure that there were no errors for nearly half an hour every night. My job was to follow him around with a candle so he could see. I would have rather been doing anything else.

"Sora, were you listening to me?" Riku snapped me out of my daydreaming and raised an eyebrow when I smiled sheepishly at him. "I'll take that as a no…"

"Sorry, I was in my own little world." I apologized while staring at my feet.

"It's fine. I was just telling you that you did some good work on the wire trap today. I walked out there to inspect it and I couldn't find any flaws." Riku smiled softly at me. We were checking the windows in his room, the windows that were his responsibility to close (but we had to check anyway because Riku might just have a heart attack if he didn't go over everything at least four times), and we stood near the one closest to his bed. The candle flickered and created dancing shadows on the walls.

"Oh, thank you. Roxas did most of the work, I just followed orders." I shrugged nonchalantly.

"And? Sometimes following orders is more honorable than making your own." Riku chuckled a bit to himself while he checked the window to make sure everything was secure.

"Well, I guess you're right…" I followed him to the other side of the room, nearest to his dresser.

"Aren't I always?" Riku joked.

It was slow going at first but the two of us had managed to find a healthy balance between wanting to slit the other's throat and actually kind of enjoying each other's company. Riku was sort of funny once I stopped taking his insults and jokes as personal attacks, and he seemed to be more respectful of me and my opinions in the past few weeks. He often called upon me for projects or jobs, such as holding his candle while he walked the entire cabin, and at first I thought it was because he wanted to give Axel time to spend with Namine. Maybe it was just wishful thinking when I thought he wanted to be around me more.

"Absolutely," I smiled back at him while the candle burned between us.

Later that night Roxas, Hayner, and I were all lying awake in our beds. I could only assume they were staring at the ceiling just as I was while we talked. More often than not we were far too exhausted to chat after a hard day of digging, sawing, building, or any other assorted job Riku could think of. Tonight was different though, and the three of us were shooting the breeze carelessly.

"Do you miss it, Roxas?" Hayner asked in a hushed voice. We all had to whisper so we wouldn't wake anyone else. It was like a middle school slumber party, except we were all twenty years old and full-grown adults living in a house with ten other people hiding from zombies.

"Sex? Of course I miss it. I'd be insane not to." Roxas sighed.

"But both of you have girlfriends." I piped up.

"Not true, Hayner isn't dating Olette." Roxas rolled over in bed to presumably give Hayner a glare. Olette had burdened us with her shattering sob story about how Hayner was leading her on, and how she loved him so much, and how she just wanted him to make a move. The _agony_!

"I'll get to it when I get to it. It's not like she's going anywhere." Hayner laughed.

"Just because you're not pressed for time doesn't mean you should treat her that way. You know how much we love Olette and no matter who the asshole is hurting her, whether it is you or anyone else, we're going to give him hell." I crossed my arms while lying on my back to prove a point, even if Hayner couldn't see it.

"So there, bitch." Roxas chimed in at the end. We all shared a laugh before remembering where we were and swallowing it down.

"Okay, so Hayner isn't dating anyone and that's why he's dry, but that doesn't explain you Roxas. Kairi is all over you." I prompted the conversation back to where it began. I craved more time to act like idiots with my friends.

"Yeah, I wish she wasn't. I just don't want to be with her anymore. It was fun at first, you know? But now that we're here… there is so much commitment to it. We have to be serious, and I didn't want to date her seriously. But I couldn't just leave her at the school either." Roxas groaned and presumably covered his face with his pillow. His next words were muffled and barely audible. "I just want to break up with her, but we all have to live in this house together."

"Dude, if you're not happy, there's no point in staying with her any longer than you already have. She's never going to go away. You'll either spend the rest of your life with her or end up offing yourself first." I tried to reason with my best friend.

"Well, technically, he'd still be spending the rest of his life with her even if he did off himself, because he'd be dead, and that would be the _rest of his life_." Hayner retorted. I rolled my eyes.

"Thank you, Hay. That wasn't the point." Roxas let out a small sigh and gave up with the conversation.

"Guys, I miss Pence." It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Cringing, I waited for their reactions.

"Me too. But on the upside, Pence brought us together with a lot of good people, and made the three of us closer too." Roxas could only be smiling as he spoke.

"Yeah, by starting the zombie apocalypse!" Hayner snorted.

"Maybe it's better off this way, you know? Survival of the fittest. They'll make a cure at some point. They have to. They've cured everything." I mused.

"Except cancer." Hayner replied.

"What is wrong with you tonight?" Roxas asked his sandy-haired friend. We could hear Hayner shrug.

"I'm not sure. So Sora, how is it over there in 'I'm a virgin land'?" Hayner changed the subject quickly.

"Same-old, same-old." I yawned before rolling over and facing the wall.

"That's got to suck. Sex is awesome." Roxas stated, and Hayner confirmed with a small _Mmhmm_.

"But then again, I've never had sex with a guy, so I wouldn't know." Hayner then added.

"Eh, I think it's pretty evenly split between chicks and dicks." Roxas admitted.

"It's just not fair that you've had sex with both, and Sora over here has had none." Hayner scolded.

"Hey! I took him to the gay bar. There were plenty of girls who came with their gay best friend for me to sleep with, and plenty of guys for Sora. I didn't hit on _one_ guy that whole night, _just_ so he could take the spotlight. And you know what he did? He sat at the bar and drank water. The whole night." Roxas acted as if I was the biggest shame of his life.

"I told you, the bar just wasn't for me! I didn't like any of the guys there." I said sheepishly.

"You tell your best friends that you're gay, and they do their best to get you a guy to sleep with. Not sleeping with a guy is then just an insult to us, Sora." Hayner teased me. He and Roxas had taken it pretty well when I came out to them freshman year, seeing as Roxas was bisexual and Hayner wasn't one to judge.

"Next time I'll remember my manners and bed the first guy who asks me my name." I snorted.

"Thank you. That's all we're asking for!" Roxas and Hayner shared a laugh.

Our conversation went on until the early hours of the morning. Eventually the other guys fell asleep, but I stayed up restless and wide-eyed. My mind was racing and thinking of a million things all at once. Mostly I thought about my brother and Pence. But now and then, just as I had fallen into the lightest type of sleep, my dream-like thoughts would send a flash of silver or sea-green my way and wake me with a jolt.


	8. Chapter eight

**Hello avid readers and wanderers!**

**Allow me to be over zealously apologetic in this author's note. I just started school again and quite frankly I haven't had time to think let alone write with all of my nursing homework. But I promise that I'll find a happy medium between the two now that the first week is over and I'll be back to obsessing over this story in no time at all. So please pardon the very short chapter, as I figured I should at least post the little I have found time to write, and do not despair, more will be on the way shortly. Thank you for reading and I hope you'll find the patience with me to hold out a few days for another long, interesting chapter. **

**I appreciate your time.**

**Please enjoy,**

**~Eliza**

* * *

I sprung up from my bed, hearing the screams coming from the living room. I quickly threw on a shirt and jeans and grabbed Hayner from his bed.

"Hayner, code red! We got to move!" I pulled him up and upon hearing my warning he bolted to the closet and dressed as well. In a matter of minutes we had our packs ready to go and were exiting the room. We noticed Zexion, Luxord, and Demyx opening their door on the other side of the hall closer to the bathroom at the end.

"Is it really happening? This can't be real!" As he whispered Demyx's eyes were wide with fear. Zexion silently took his hand and led him into the hallway. I motioned for us all to move forward.

We crept past the kitchen as quietly as possible. The screaming continued in the living room while we snuck away from the danger. I didn't dare look in. I already knew what was happening; there was no other way that those sounds could be in the house. It had been so long since I had heard something as horrific as this. Once we made it to the safety of the front door we all sprinted for the backyard as far away from the living room as we could get. Panting, Luxord raised an eyebrow toward me.

"Where's Riku?" He asked curiously between puffs of air. I counted heads. Outside there were eight of us. Selphie and Olette had been out in the garden pulling weeds, and Larxene was soaking up some sun on a towel nearby. Hayner and I had left with the other three members, Luxord, Zexion, and Demyx, and we were all huddled near the girls and the garden now. They stared at us perplexed from the ground where they rested on their knees while working.

"What's going on?" Selphie asked. I covered her mouth with my hand quickly before she could ask any more questions.

"Shh! They might hear us. We have to get out of sight." I explained in a rush. Olette and Larxene rose to their feet and followed the rest of the group further back toward the fence. We had almost made it out and over before Riku caught us.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Riku snarled at me in particular as I was climbing the large privacy fence surrounding the cabin. He angrily walked over to me with exaggerated movement of his arms and legs. "Sora, get down!" I hesitated. "_Get down!"_ Riku nearly screamed at me, his teeth clenched. I hopped down and covered his mouth while he stared at me with wild eyes.

The screaming in the living room stopped and the rest of the group scattered in a flurry of movement. Zexion, Luxord, Larxene, and Demyx all fled to the left of the house and Hayner, Olette, and Selphie all scurried to the right. Riku moved my hand from his mouth and glared at me before turning his head to watch the back door slowly creak open, as if being pushed by something that crept slowly. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what was waiting on the other side.


	9. Chapter nine

I closed my eyes as the door opened fully. I wished that I could make this disappear. I couldn't deal with this right now; I was in no mood for the world of hell they was swearing her way across the lawn at me.

"Sora! You _told_ him to _break up with me?_" Kairi grabbed me by the collar and glared at me with fury. I shrank smaller and pulled at her fists.

"That's not exactly what happened!" I squeaked out while turning my head away from her menacing stare. Roxas was bounding down the stairs after her with Axel and Namine on his heels.

"Wait, _this_ is what you were all worked up about?" Riku gave me a look that made it very clear he thought I was an idiot before taking Kairi's hands away from my shirt. I stumbled backward and out of her reach.

"Kairi, please stop this. It doesn't have to be this way." Roxas caught up to our trio of disbelief, anger, and cowardice. Kairi whirled around to shove his shoulders.

"What do you mean? Of course it has to be this way. You're _leaving me._" She had tears spilling over and flowing down her cheeks as she stared at Roxas. He tried to open his mouth to say something, anything, but it looked like all he could do was gape.

"Kairi, it'll be alright. Let's just go back inside…" Namine tested the waters and gently placed her hand on Kai's shoulder. The auburn haired girl shrugged it off and turned to face her new victim of misplaced rage.

"How will this be alright? We're all trapped here and I have to go about every day seeing him! I have to think all the time about how he never really loved me." Kairi was sputtering out words in-between hiccups. Axel stood a bit farther back than Namine; he ran his hands through his hair and tried to look anywhere but in Kairi's direction. Riku was mesmerized by the scene playing out in front of him. He remained speechless.

"I never said I loved you!" Roxas became defensive, sick of being seen as the bad guy, and stood up for himself.

"That doesn't mean I never loved you!"

"That's not my fault Kairi; I don't know how to make you realize that this was bound to happen."

"How can you say that?" Kairi looked crushed. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I like someone else!" Roxas' eyes grew wide with regret the moment the words left his mouth. The rest of us were quiet as the impact of his words settled in.

"It's her, isn't it?" Kairi's tears transformed into massive sobs as she hysterically tried to formulate sentences. "You…Always… Her… Why… Hate… You!" Kairi once more turned to Namine and threw her to the ground. She pulled at her hair causing the blonde to scream and thrash about.

"_Enough."_ Riku's words weren't loud but they held so much force that both of the girls stopped moving. Riku then lifted up Kairi and pointed to Larxene (who had peeked around the house with the others, trying to see the commotion without getting involved). "Take her inside and get her cleaned up before she makes an even bigger fool of herself." Riku held on to the sobbing redhead until Larx came and took her away. Axel helped Namine to her feet and glared at Roxas as they went past.

"Oh, don't worry buddy, it's not the whore you call your girlfriend. You can be sure about that." Roxas' hate that had been pent-up our entire time at the cabin came out as he glared daggers at Namine when they passed. For a moment I thought he was going to go after her; Roxas had more self-control than that, though.

"Go inside too Roxas." Riku commanded and slowly but surely Rox made his way across the lawn and to the steps of the back door.

Eventually the Silverette and I were the only ones in the yard. Riku slid down the fence until he was sitting with his back against it. He looked up at me expectantly until I, too, slid down the fence and plopped next to him.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing anyone any favors by keeping them here." He rubbed his temple, clearly feeling insecure.

"They're all alive. They may hate each other, but at least they're alive to hate each other." I chuckled and clasped Riku's shoulder in reassurance. In reality that was all that mattered anymore. We couldn't want anything more than going to bed and waking up the next day.

"I guess. So you want to explain to me why you marched everyone out and hid out here like the cabin was a house of horrors?" Riku turned to look at me. His eyes were lighter than before and he had a bemused expression. He seemed comfortable sitting and talking with me.

"I didn't want to deal with the mess. Roxas and Namine have a bad history, and somehow I just knew that with all the screaming going on things couldn't be good. So we all got out of there and tried to run." I laughed at the idea.

"Over the fence? Into the trench full of spears?" Riku raised an eyebrow at me.

"Not my brightest plan." I smiled.

"No, not by any means. But I can see why you'd want to get away. That was hell to watch." Riku ran a hand through his silver locks and shook it through the back, making his hair dance and shimmer in the light. I had never truly appreciated his hair before. It looked so sleek and smooth, and far less rowdy than my spiky brown mess. I wanted to run my hands through his hair and resisted the urge by lacing my fingers together in my lap.

"Do you think it'll settle down?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course it will. They all have to live here. I can't knowingly let someone leave just to be torn apart or turned into one of those _things_."

"I thought we agreed they were zombies."

"We did. But it just sounds so cliché, you know? I wish they had another name."

"Well, let's name them." I suggested cheerfully. Riku smiled softly with his lips closed; I was momentarily irritated with the fact that he didn't show his teeth.

"Alright, but it has to be good, otherwise I'm just going to make fun of you."

"Fine, fine. We can just call them the undead, or biters, or monsters even."

"It just doesn't seem right. For now let's stick with monsters. I think that'll work." Riku closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

"You all good, man?" I asked out of genuine concern. We spent a lot of time thinking about ourselves here, and Riku spent far too much time thinking about all of us.

"Yeah, I just wonder how long this can last, you know? How long can we hole up here self-sustained? We're running low on supplies already, and I was going to make a run with Axel to the town a few miles away in a day or so, but now I just don't think that can happen. There's too much going on internally to even think about leaving. How am I supposed to keep everyone safe and have them still work together when we're falling apart at the seams? This all works because I _make_ it work, Sora. What if I can't make it work anymore?" Riku unleashed all of his hidden worries and frustrations on me.

For the first time I felt as if the two of us were friends. This was how people who liked each other and enjoyed spending time together talked. Riku and I weren't brought here by circumstance or by necessity; we were talking and helping each other out of good-will and _want._ I couldn't help but smile to myself as I spoke to the silverette.

"Riku, it'll all be fine. Even if it doesn't work, even if we can't stay here, we'll find somewhere else to go. Even if we don't all make it, it won't be your fault. You can't take all the responsibility on your shoulders. Every one of us has a personal responsibility to help this group, to _make _it work, not just you. How many supplies do we need?" I asked curiously after trying to give him some solace.

"Quite a bit, actually. We're running low on basic things like cloth and blankets and laundry detergent; the dumb everyday stuff you don't think about in times like this. But we still need it, and we need more weapons. If we get attacked in this place we're sitting ducks, Sora. Those trenches and that fence can only hold off, what? Five, ten zombies? There must be at least a hundred out somewhere in the woods by now. Two months of wandering aimlessly around has to have led some of them here, no matter how remote this place is." Riku rubbed the bridge of his nose and near his eyes with his thumb and pointer finger. He was clearly stressed about this.

"Well, I'll go with you."

"You'd do that? It's dangerous Sora. I don't even know how dangerous it could be." He warned me but my mind was made up. If I could do anything to make Riku's life a bit easier, I would. He did so much for all of us.

"I never really paid you back for saving me and my friends. When do we leave?" I asked while standing. I brushed off my pants and extended my hand to Riku. He took it and hoisted himself up to my level. He passed too close to me for comfort and the distinct smell of laundry soap and what could only be Riku's natural scent (Manly and musky, yet clean somehow) breezed by. I felt a flash of heat go through me.

"In the morning. I'll get ready." He began to leave me alone at the fence. "Hey, Sora?" Riku turned around after he had made it a few feet toward the door. We stood apart, him with his hair artfully over his shoulder and lips parted open from speech, and me with my feet planted and breath hitched as I responded.

"Yeah?" I asked. My breath was airy and light as I tried to take control of my body's impulses.

"I'm really glad I saved your life." Riku beamed at me. His teeth and hair glistened as his eyes danced in the sunlight streaming over the fence. He was the most gorgeous man on the planet and that smile was just for me. My knees nearly buckled.

"Me too." I stuttered like an idiot as the Silverette sauntered away.


	10. The Town

It was sometime during our third mile of walking that I realized I was undeniably attracted to Riku.

We had spent the night before preparing for our trip. I had calmed down Roxas and Kairi long enough to get them to settle some of their issues and Riku had created packs for us to carry along. Axel was left in charge while we were gone with specific demands that must be carried out in order for the group to survive. This included him checking all the windows every night to make sure they were sealed, walking the perimeter around the fence to check if any zombies had fallen into the trench, and keeping tempers as low as possible. We were able to leave only after Riku was a hundred percent satisfied with Axel's ability to keep everything under control. We started our trek in the dimly lit hours of the morning.

"This is hell." I muttered to myself as I closed the gate and locked it behind us. Riku checked my work not once, but twice, and then led me away from the cabin on foot. I thought wistfully of the large and speedy truck resting on the other side of the fence that could have brought us to the town twenty miles away.

"We'll make too much noise. We'd attract those monsters right to the cabin if we went roaring down the road in this thing." Riku had explained to me the night before after I suggested driving. I was crushed that we were going to have to make the twenty-mile hike on foot; however, I had already agreed to go with, and I wasn't one to go back on my word.

After hours of walking we hadn't even made it half way. The sun streamed down and caused both Riku and I to peel off our shirts long ago. It occurred to me that if I offered to carry his pack he would be exposed. He accepted graciously and I had spent the past forty or so minutes just staring at Riku's back. His muscles were toned and tight; I watched, thrilled, as small bead of sweat trailed down his pale skin. Occasionally he'd douse himself with a bit of water from his bottle and it would flow down. Chills ran up my spine each time.

The Silverette silently motioned for me to take off his pack and my own and hand them over. I shrugged the bags off my shoulders and eagerly handed them over to Riku. Though they were relatively light (since we had to fill them with supplies from town) they still dug into my bare back and proved to be highly uncomfortable. I took the lead while Riku trailed behind me. We were following the main road out of the dense forest.

It took me an hour to realize Riku was staring at me. I had turned around to ask for my water bottle only to find him staring off in the general direction of where my back had been. He was so out of it he almost smacked right into me. I raised an eyebrow questioningly and grabbed the bottle to take a drink. Some of the water slipped to the corners of my mouth and fell down my chest. The cool droplets were refreshing, but not as refreshing as the look that Riku got on his face when I caught him watching the water trail downward.

Another twenty minutes or so and I turned around for drink once more. He was doing it again, staring at me, that is, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was ogling me for the same reasons I was slack-jawed over him. I repressed the thought though. No one in their right mind would lust over me; I was just some over-enthusiastic college kid with unruly hair and a loud mouth. Not to mention that Riku was probably the straightest guy on the planet who had no idea I was gay, and wouldn't talk to me if he knew how much I thought about him. _No, he doesn't want you_, I thought to myself before turning back around and shuffling forward.

I had to face the facts. Riku was the top of the food chain. He had been every girl's dream back at the University. They were all dying to be with him and he gave them all the same cold-shoulder every time. He'd smile, he'd play nice, but I never saw him around with one of those girls. He led them on all the same, just like he would me if I got too close. Well, I wasn't dumb. I wasn't going to play into his little game.

I decided to ignore him completely. Childish? Of course. But what other option did I have? Every time I looked at him he would smile, or use his strong hands to signal something to me, or he'd even run his fingers through his hair and shake it back and forth, as if he was just taunting me. He simply _had_ to know how he made me feel. I had danced around Riku's stares and smiles for two months now. We lived in the same house and slept only a few rooms apart. Riku knew me far too well; he could have me playing right into his trap.

I was over-thinking this all. Maybe the Silverette didn't even realize that inside my mind I was having a civil war of thoughts and emotions. He must have been completely oblivious as we walked down that long and dusty road together not making any noise but our footsteps and the occasional sigh. He couldn't have known anything. There was no possible way for him to know that I was internally struggling with whether he even knew I existed besides being part of his little pack.

That was all I was to him. I was part of the group. I was an asset to survival. He'd do anything to survive, even pair up with his most hated enemy, me. Just a few months ago we were scowling at each other in the halls non-stop. My entire college career I'd hated Riku. He and his nobodies were the dark clouds in my sky, the stain on my favorite shirt, the big test on my birthday. Anything terrible, they were the ones who caused it. The sun didn't set until Riku had pissed on my life. So why was it that I was finding myself laughing with him, and smiling, and feeling so sick to my stomach at the thought of him ever knowing how I felt?

But I wanted him to know, truthfully. I wanted him to know that I _wanted_ him. Because that feeling in my stomach wasn't just dread, it was excitement. I longed for him to hold me, and for us to spend more time together, and I longed for touches and kisses and everything I had denied myself to think of for the past two months while I ached for Riku in secrecy to even myself. How could I have been so blind? Why did I deny the feelings I knew were true. I was attracted to Riku. I _liked_ Riku.

"Sora!" He called my name and shoved me to the ground. I hit the dirt road and scraped the side of my face on the rocks. My skin stung and I had cut my lip open on my teeth. Riku was already up on his feet and stabbing the eyes of the zombie in front of me. I hadn't even noticed her with how deep in thought I had been. The undead girl crumbled to the ground and lay still for a few moments before Riku exhaled and crouched down next to me.

"Jesus…" I hissed out while taking Riku's hands as he helped me sit up. He was constantly alert; he looked left to right for more zombies, but there only seemed to be the one. After a few more moments he visibly relaxed and sat down with his back against mine, so we could see all sides.

"You okay, Pepper?" He asked me before handing a water bottle over his head. I took it graciously and chugged.

"Yeah, I think so. Thanks man, I owe you one again." I rubbed the back of my head and chuckled at the thought of how many times Riku had saved my life. The memory of him smiling at me the night before filled my mind. _I'm really glad I saved your life…_

"Anytime," Riku accepted the water bottle back and took a swig.

"Why don't you like me?" I spewed out the words before I could censor what I was saying. I slammed my eyes closed and hoped he couldn't hear me.

"What are you talking about? I like you just fine." Riku's voice changed from humored to what appeared as annoyed and confused.

"Forget it. Let's just go. We're almost there, aren't we?" I shot to my feet and began walking down the road once more. When I turned to look Riku seemed as if he wanted to say something, but then thought better of it and shook his head. He trailed after me for a while and eventually caught up and took the lead.

Another hour of silence and the dragging of feet brought us to the small hunting town. It had a gun store, a small grocer, and a bait shop. Riku rattled off a couple of other stores that weren't important to us since they wouldn't have the supplies we needed. No one lived in this rural area; it was all cabins and hunting posts where normal stores weren't truly necessary. Riku explained to me that these shops were run by little mom and pop folks who must have evacuated long ago, and that we shouldn't feel bad for stealing.

The very first store we came to was the grocer. I had assumed it would be an open glass front just like most grocery stores, but this was sealed entirely in brick and only had one small door for an entrance. The "open" sign remained unlit right next to the door. There was an eerie feel to this place, as if it should have been warm and inviting but was now crumbling and deserted. Riku reached out for the handle and pulled. The door remained shut.

"Well, shit." I muttered. Now we had no way in and we needed food supplies. We couldn't live off of the garden forever and winter was coming up in a few months.

"Its fine, I know a back way. Quit talking. If there are zombies around here they'll hear us." Riku whispered to me before motioning for me to follow him around the side of the building. We crept near the brick wall and he pried open the back door for employees only.

The break room was cluttered and smelled terrible. Half eaten plates of food were scattered around the small plastic table with flies buzzing around them, feasting. It was a smaller square room with only a counter, the table, and a fridge in it. There was an open corner that led somewhere, but I didn't know to what. I shut the door behind us and locked it before Riku whirled around to face me.

"What are you doing? Don't seal us in!" He harshly whispered. Just as he reached for the door the moaning behind us started up.

"Riku!" I exclaimed as two of those monsters started their way toward us from around the corner. The silverette turned and gasped before strengthening his grip on the knife.


	11. Chapter eleven

Riku couldn't get there fast enough. There was no physically possible way for us to make it out of the door and escape before the zombies could reach us; we would be torn to shreds. I searched for an opening frantically and only found one. I grabbed Riku's wrist, whirling him around to face the same direction as me, and shouted a command.

"Jump!" I clung to his wrist as I hopped on top of the small plastic table that buckled under my weight but didn't give out. I dove off the side and Riku followed my steps before we burst through the door that led into the store. I slammed the break-room door closed behind us and tried to catch my breath as my adrenaline skyrocketed.

"Quick thinking, Pepper," Riku praised me before his eyes went wide. "Dive!" He exclaimed and then flew himself backward. He held on to my shirt so that I collapsed on top of him. For a few moments that seemed as long as an eternity I laid on top of Riku's chest with my face in his neck.

I had never experienced anything that felt so _right_. Everything about the way our body's conformed together was perfect. The dip of his neck and shoulder cradled my head and his chest was broad enough to support my entire frame. The only thing that ruined my internal joy was the zombie directly behind us; he inched closer, making terrible moaning noises of delight at the meal in front of him. Riku scuttled backward on all fours with me still in tow, picking up both of our weight easily. He wrapped one arm around my waist as he propped himself up and then stood, carrying my body with his own. I supported myself and ducked out-of-the-way as the monster reached out his hand to grab. Riku shoved me forward and I took off running through the aisles of food.

I heard Riku struggling to fight off the zombie that attacked me. I tried to hit the brakes, tried to turn around and help him, but my instincts told me to run far away from the immediate danger. I couldn't stop pumping my arms and legs as hard as I could through all the bread and canned goods. The store was remarkably large on the outside for how small it had looked from the dusty road.

I rounded the corner and smacked directly into a small zombie no larger than a twelve-year-old. She hit the ground hard and began immediately clawing for me. I yelped and backed up into one of the shelves, causing the entire thing to fall over. Riku cried out from the now exposed aisle next to me.

"Pepper, what the hell? I'm trapped!" He screamed and struggled underneath the shelf. Two zombies, the one that had attacked me at the door and a new one I hadn't seen, were advancing from the end of the aisle rapidly. The girl at my feet struggled to get up before I kicked her in the face hard and she spun in a circle on the tile, crashing into a display and tipping it over on top of herself. She shrieked underneath until I stomped on her head with my boot. She stopped moving.

"Sora!" Riku called for me frantically. I rushed to his aid and assessed my options. I could free Riku and we could try to make a run for it, but what if I couldn't lift the shelf and the zombies tore us both to bits? I could try to take them on myself, but I had only ever beaten one zombie at a time, and that was usually with someone else's help. Could I save him?

My last option was to run. I could leave Riku trapped underneath, utterly helpless as the monsters ripped his flesh from his bones and devoured him whole. I could make it away safely, grabbing whatever I could for supplies, and tell the group that Riku just couldn't make it. That would be the easy way, wouldn't it?

I wasn't that type of man though, and I sure as hell wasn't a coward.

"Give me your knife!" I demanded Riku to hand over the blade. I reached down for the hilt when he released it from his grip and sprang up to face my foes. The zombies were dangerously close;my only option was to try to take them out one at a time, but how? How could I separate them? I couldn't just stand here and hope one of them decided to take a breather or something.

I held my breath and hoped I was a genius instead of a moron as I ran straight toward the two monsters. They groaned and garbled as blood and flesh dripped from their mouths. The sight was enough to churn my stomach; I kept running and soon enough made contact. My left arm and leg collided with zombie number 1 and railroaded him to the ground from the force. My right arm purged the knife directly into the soft cartilage of the second zombie's exposed nasal cavity. It sliced right through and bore its way into the brain. The zombie crumbled and while it crashed to the ground I sunk the knife into the skull of the first zombie who was struggling on the floor. The whole ordeal took less than thirty seconds and had my heart racing faster than it ever had before.

All was quiet in the store. My breathing seemed to have halted as I took in what had just happened. The silence was unnerving but I couldn't seem to get any words to form.

"Pepper?" Riku called out for me.

I tried to tell him I was okay. Only gasps escaped me.

"Sora?" Riku's pitch increased as he said my name again.

I still couldn't find words. I hiccuped and choked on air.

"Sora? _Sora?_ Sora, are you alright?" Riku's voice was so high in pitch that he seemed to almost be shrieking from under the shelf. He struggled, trapped, and tried to turn and see what had happened.

No matter how hard I tried I still couldn't speak. My knees began to shake and slowly gave out from underneath me. I hit the ground with a solid _thud_ and didn't move after I sat.

"Sora! Sora, please! Sora? _Sora!"_ Riku began thrashing underneath the shelf, moving the entire structure as he tried desperately to escape. I stared at the two dead corpses in front of me. They smelled too awful. They reeked of death and decay. Maggots were crawling in and out of the mouth of the second zombie I had killed. I coughed and choked before throwing up on the tile next to me.

"_SORA!" _Riku screamed at the top of his lungs and forcefully shoved the shelf high enough for him to escape from underneath it. He staggered to his feet where he frantically looked right and left for me, only to turn around to see me on the ground. He hopped on top of the broken shelf and then skipped over the side, avoiding as many of the canned goods that had fallen as possible. By the time he made it to me I was done throwing up and looked at him weakly.

"Jesus, Shit! Sora, are you okay? Are you bit? Did they scratch you? Sora, say something to me! Please!" Riku shook my shoulders and lightly slapped my cheeks which were covered in blood trying to get a response out of me. His eyes were wide with fright and his skin was paler than normal as he checked my arms, legs, stomach, and back for bites and scratches. When he realized I was unscathed he took my face by the chin with his thumb and index finger. He set my head so that I stared directly into his eyes. "Pepper, what's wrong?" His voice was no longer intense. It was now soft and delicate as if he was talking to a small child. I blinked, not realizing that I had cried. Tears were rolling down my cheeks though and through muffled ears I could hear faint sobs escaping from my mouth. I didn't know what to say to the Silverette. I didn't know why I was weeping.

Riku did something then that I will never forget. He sat down from his crouched position (on my right side, for I had vomited to my left) and pulled my face into his chest. He wrapped one arm around my shoulders and the other arm's hand held my head to his shirt. The fabric dried the tears off of my cheeks while we sat motionless for a few moments. It was a while before I found the ability to speak.

"You sounded so scared." I observed. I don't know why it was the first thing I said to him, or if things would be different if I had said anything else, but nothing was ever the same after I uttered those words.

"I've never been so scared before." Riku confessed to me as his hand that held my head shifted so his fingers were laced in my spiky brown hair. It was obvious that the silverette could have let go of his hold on my body by now as my breathing was settled and I was no longer crying but he held tight to my shoulders and his fingertips soothingly rubbed circles on my scalp.

"I don't understand…" I peered up at him from under his chin and raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you were dead. I've never had to lose anyone to this. You lost Vanitas and I saw what that did to you. I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost anyone." Riku closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. He was clearly holding something back from me.

"Oh, right. Your little pack," I frowned. "Alpha wolf can't let anything happen to his little betas and omegas now can he?"

"Do you think this is a power trip I'm on? I'm keeping you and everyone else alive." Riku's tone turned in annoyance.

"It's not all just you. If I recall I just saved your life!" I pulled away from him. He was such an ass, who was this insensitive and stupid?

"I guess you did…" Riku's voice trailed off as he pulled his legs closer to his body. "Thank you, Pepper." He finally softened his tone and I noticed him visibly relax.

"You're welcome, and you're damn lucky. I wouldn't have pulled that shit for just anybody." And I was telling the truth. I was terrified right down to my bones afterward once my adrenaline stopped pumping.

"Then why did you do it for me?" Riku questioned me.

"Because I don't know what I'd do without you." I had intended the words far differently than they sounded but once I said them Riku's eyes went wide. "Erm, I mean, Uh…" I stuttered, trying to find a way to recover.

"Why do you think I was so scared to lose you?" Riku's voice was barely a whisper as he spoke, but his eyes bore into my own. Those sea green eyes stared at me like jewels. They shone so handsomely.

"I… I don't know."

"Sora, I can't do this anymore."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Christ, Pepper, do you know anything? _'I don't know what I'd do without you, I don't know what you mean'." _Riku teased me playfully and cracked a small smile.

"Sorry." I stuck my tongue out at him and he closed his eyes for a moment.

"Look, I don't really know how to do this. I don't remember the last time I had to confess anything to somebody. I'm an open book, Sora. What you see is what you get with me, and yet here I am stammering like an idiot around you. Why do you do this to me?" His hands shook a bit as he talked and his voice kept getting faster and faster.

"Riku, I'm gay." I spit the words out and just decided to accept where they took us.

Something inside of me told me it was the right thing to say. Somehow I understood that this was what Riku wanted to hear. He wanted some reassurance of what he thought to be true. He needed a green light, a starting pistol, a go-whistle, and I was ready to give it to him. He turned to face me and I turned so our eyes locked once more. He was shaking worse than before now.

"I know."

"You knew?"

"It's obvious."

"How so?"

"The way you look at me."

"Why didn't you say something if you noticed me staring?"

"I tried to ignore it."

"Oh…" I deflated internally.

"Not like that!" Riku exclaimed.

"Then why?"

"Because I didn't want to have something to lose."

"How can you lose me if I'm not yours?"

"Sora, this is so hard for me."

"You're shaking. I've never seen you like this."

"Sora, I'm absolutely terrified of you."

"_Me?_ I'm harmless." I nearly laughed in his face.

"I'm terrified of what I feel for you." He was a trembling mess.

"I'm not afraid of you, Riku." I leaned closer to him.

"I'm a wreck, can't you see that?" The silverette steadied himself but didn't move any closer.

"Yes, but I don't care. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Riku regulated his breathing.

"How did you know I've been staring at you?" I asked.

"Because I can't take my eyes off you, not even for a second."

"What, am I trouble?" I joked, trying to ease his mood.

"Something like that…" Riku took a deep breath.

He cupped my face and kissed me.


	12. Chapter twelve

**Hello Everyone,**

**I just want to start off by apologizing. I did not think that a full time job and full-time school would be this hard, all while participating in so many other things outside of those two. I kind of let you guys down with how long it took me to write this chapter, and I am so sorry. I will do my very best to speed up my update process. I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**~Eliza**

* * *

The kiss (not to sound too cliché) was all I had ever dreamed it would be. It didn't matter that I had thrown up moments before, it didn't matter that there were two dead people on the floor next to us, and it didn't matter that the world was a giant shit hole. I was in Riku's arms and his lips were pressed against mine so warm and inviting that I thought it couldn't be real.

When we finally broke apart he smiled at me, a soft smile that had my stomach clenching and my heart fluttering away.

"Sora, I've never told anyone that I like them before." He sheepishly admitted. I couldn't help but let out the most girlish giggle I've ever released in my life.

"Well, if that's how you planned on doing it, it wasn't a half bad idea." I reassured him.

"So, you like me too?" He asked earnestly. I was surprised that he needed this much confirmation from me. He always seemed to sure of himself; yet, here he was struggling to even look me in the eye.

"A bit too much, if you ask me." I stood up to me feet and held out my hand for him to grab.

We remained hand in hand for hours at a time. As long as we had the option our fingers were entwined and we did everything as a pair. We filled our sacks with supplies, we raided as many of the little shops as we could manage, and we left the town with our digits laced.

It was the fifth hour into our walk where I could no longer take the silence between us and demanded that Riku talk to me. He agreed, warily, but only if we kept our voices hushed.

"So what was your major? I just realized I never asked." Riku whispered to me while our arms swung together.

"I double majored, actually." I replied.

"No shit, really? Man, that sounds like a lot of work." Riku whistled.

"Psychology and sociology. I wanted to know what made people tick, and why we interact how we do."

"So you're just digging your way into my head, aren't you?"

"Possibly."

"And that's how you got me to like you, isn't it?"

"I'll never tell."

"Sora Sora Sora," Riku clicked his tongue. "Can't you see that I'm already an open book?"

"I think there's a lot more to you than you're letting on."

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll never tell."

"Hey, don't take my lines!" I squealed in delight.

"Shhh! Sora, be quiet!" Riku covered my lips with his finger and turned his head from side to side, looking for the source of a noise I didn't hear. I tried to see what he was searching for; I was absolutely oblivious. I didn't have the skill Riku did. "I think we're okay…. But a little softer, please." He smiled softly at me.

"Of course, I'm sor- " I nearly finished my sentence before Riku clamped my mouth closed and squinted his eyes off into the distance. I could hear it now; it was a faint roaring sound down the road. Over the horizon his truck came into sight.

"_What the fuck_?" The silverette's playful mood was long gone as we took off in the direction of the truck, both of us running toward a head on collision. Within a minute we were eye to eye with Axel, Demyx, Roxas, and Hayner. They were all spewing venom and screaming at each other.

"Hey! _Hey_! HEEEEEY!" Riku shouted and the boys settled down. "What in the hell is going on? Who told you that you could take my truck? Do you want to let every biter in the tri-county area where we are? Because you're on the right track!" Riku waved his arms in anger and motioned to all the trees surrounding us.

"It's all this fucker's fault!" Axel pointed to Roxas, starting a whole new chorus of slurs and insults from the two groups of friends. Hayner nearly hit Axel and Roxas shoved Demyx after a nasty jab.

"Cut it out!" Riku commanded. "Everyone get behind the truck; we're rolling it back to the cabin." He meant business.

"I'd love to get the hell out of here but it's just not possible." Demyx told Riku. The Silverette raised an eyebrow.

"And why the hell not? I want an answer, not bullshit. I'm getting tired of this." Riku crossed his arms in exasperation. I awkwardly shifted my weight around on my feet. I hated when Riku acted like this, but there was nothing I could do, he needed to be a leader. Just from the way the four guys were fighting I could tell that they needed someone to bring them together.

"Because Namine and Luxord are out here somewhere!" Axel exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Riku was taken aback.

"Well, no matter how much I tried to warn him, hot head over here didn't believe me when I said that she was no good. He found her all wrapped up with Luxord and blew a gasket, kicked them both out of the cabin." Roxas sneered.

"You did _what?"_ The steel in Riku's voice sent chills up my spine and I was pretty sure I saw Demyx shiver too.

"That's not true." Hayner piped up.

"Oh shut up Hay." Roxas rolled his eyes, clearly enjoying the fact that Namine appeared to be out of the picture. Axel looked distressed as he spoke.

"I went after her, I did! I grabbed her by the wrist, I tried to make her stay, but she said she wouldn't. That she couldn't bear another second in that cabin with us." Axel's eyes were wide with hurt.

"She said _you."_ Roxas corrected him. Axel roared and pushed the spiky-haired blonde to the ground, ready to kill. Hayner shoved the red-head out-of-the-way before he could strike.

"I don't care what she said; where is she now?" Riku stopped the brawl.

"That's just it! We don't know." Demyx frowned and furrowed his brows.

"Last we saw her and Luxord were headed down the road this way. You two haven't seen them?" Roxas asked. I shook my head whole Riku shrugged.

"Damn… Where is she?" Axel's distress became apparent as he kicked his feet around on the dirt road.

"We have to check the forest." Hayner suggested. Riku held up his hand to stop him from talking.

"No. I won't let anyone go in there. It's a maze full of zombies and God knows what else."

"We have to!" Axel protested.

"No, we don't. She made a choice." Roxas retorted.

"Shut up or I'll smear your smug little face all over this dirt road." Axel glared.

"Hey man, it's not my fault your girlfriend, oops, sorry, _ex-_girlfriend is a whore." Roxas shrugged.

"I'll kill you!"

"Try it!"

"Hey, cut it out you two!"

"Help me…"

"Stay out of this Riku!"

"Excuse me?"

"Help me…."

"You heard him!"

"Shut up Demyx!"

"Help me..."

"You looking to get hit?"

"Help—"

"_Guys!_" I screamed over the commotion. Everyone was so startled by my sudden outburst that they stopped tearing at each other long enough to look in my direction. "_It's Luxord."_ I explained, pointing to a figure dragging itself from the forest. He had pleaded for us to rescue him but only I had heard in the heat of the moment. I stared for as long as I could manage.

His entire lower half was ripped to shreds and bleeding heavily. He had claw marks all down his back (he had lost his shirt) and his right leg stopped at the knee-cap. It was almost too much to look at.

"_Help. Me."_ He pleaded once more before a gurgling sound came out the tree-line. "Oh, oh God no! Please no! _Help me! Please for God's sake __**help me**_!" Luxord began clawing his way frantically toward the dirt road before the source of his terror tumbled out of the trees.

Namine's eyes were no longer blue. She was covered in what could only be Luxord's blood and she spewed parts of his leg from her mouth. She attacked him so quickly that I thought I had imagined it at first. It was only when Riku shook me that I realized this wasn't fake. This was really happening.

"Bat! Give me the bat!" Riku yanked the base-ball bat from my pack and hauled it over to the gruesome scene. Axel let out a shriek when Riku made contact with Namine's head but the red-head remained planted in his spot. Her skull crushed with a sickening noise; Riku smashed her with the bat once more for good measure.

Luxord lay on the ground underneath her, crying pitifully. Axel wasn't in any better shape. Roxas stared in disbelief while Hayner and Demyx had turned away from the sight. Riku stared at me with a look in his eyes that I had never seen before. I had never seen him heart-broken.

"Lux…" He crouched to the ground. "Luxord… I can't let you turn." Riku bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes. His friend didn't respond. He merely writhed on the ground, crying for his lover and crying for himself as well, I could only assume, for he had lost so much in so little time.

Riku couldn't get what he was looking for from Luxord. He stood to his feet and turned over his shoulder to look at me. We made eye contact and he asked me, without saying a word, if he should do it. And how could I respond with anything but approval? I couldn't leave this man like this, with only half a body and so much pain, both emotional and physical.

I nodded. Riku took my silent confirmation and slammed the bat down.

_CRACK CRACK CRACK._

We didn't speak much when we rolled the truck home. We didn't say much when we closed the gate shut behind us. We didn't acknowledge much when the others asked if we found Namine and Luxord. We laid out our supplies and put away our packs. We closed the windows and Riku checked them all twice. I brushed my teeth and curled up in my bed. Roxas and Hayner were quiet that night. I didn't blame them.

Maybe in time things would seem normal again. Halfway through the night Roxas got up and dragged his mattress into Axel's bedroom where he plopped it down on the floor. The redhead questioned him through tears but the blonde didn't offer too much explanation.

"I figured you shouldn't be alone." It was all the comfort he was willing to give now, but hell, it was something. Axel fell asleep to the sound of another heartbeat in his hell.

I was awake for a very long time. It seemed that nothing could soothe me from my tense state. It seemed as if every time I closed my eyes I saw the bodies on the ground or heard Luxord begging for help. Eventually I wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water; I hoped it would calm me down. I stumbled upon Riku sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. His silver hair was covered in glowing light from his candle.

Making as little noise as possible I slipped into the chair next to him and just sat there with my water. I didn't say much of anything; I didn't feel like he wanted me to. I sat, and stared, or yawned, or whistled, or looked around. But I didn't talk. I just knew I wouldn't have the right words.

"I don't regret it, you know?" Riku looked up at me after a long while.

"You shouldn't."

"I wish I had a gun."

"I hate guns."

"Of course you do." Riku let out a choked laugh. It caught halfway up his throat and he swallowed it back down.

"You did the right thing." I lay my hand on his shoulder and squeezed softly. I just couldn't find enough words.


	13. Chapter thirteen

**Again, I'm terribly sorry for the wait on the chapter. I had a super important campaign I was running for, and I am privileged to receive the title of state officer. :) Thanks for having patience with me.**

* * *

After Luxord and Namine's death our numbers dwindled to eleven. For the first couple of weeks after the incident it was tense around the cabin. We had never lost any of our own before, and after two months of living together it seemed near constant that we'd always be here in this cabin, living and working with one another to survive. But now two of our members were dead, Kairi and Roxas had broken up, Axel was shattered, Hayner couldn't decide if he wanted to be with Olette, Larxene and Demyx were sullen over the loss of Luxord, and Zexion wouldn't talk to any of us. Riku took their deaths as his own personal failure and couldn't let himself forget his mistake of leaving Axel in charge. I seemed to be the only one able to work in those few days; I took it upon myself to handle all the chores of the day.

I harvested our entire garden since a frost would be coming in soon. I made sure that all the windows were sealed and closed every night with Riku following behind me. I cooked and set the table and cleaned the dishes and sorted our supplies. I organized our weapons and our tools; I made sure everyone had clean sheets to sleep in. I melted all the burned wax back into candles again and made a new rationing list. I went to bed every night absolutely drained and exhausted. I worked my fingers raw each and every day, but I couldn't stop. Who would do it if I didn't? What would we eat? How could we be safe? It was a thankless job, but somebody had to do it.

The third week was torture. I had barely slept in four days because I had so much to do. No one was talking to each other, everyone tip-toed through the cabin trying not to draw attention to themselves. Anywhere I turned for help I only received excuses.

I had dozed off in my chair where I was peeling carrots at four in the morning or so. I woke with a start, drool dripping down my cheek, to a shock of silver hair in front of me. Once I rubbed my eyes and cleared the drool from my face I sleepily gazed at Riku in front of me.

"Pepper, you look like hell." Riku's voice was soft as a whisper.

I squinted my eyes at him in an attempted glare before letting out a yawn. I picked my knife back up and began peeling carrots once more. I had lost nearly two hours of work by falling asleep. I scolded myself internally for my weakness.

"You can't keep going like this." Riku stated plainly.

"I don't have a choice." I replied honestly.

"Of course you do. Just set down the knife." Riku folded his arms while he leaned against the wall to talk with me. His pajama bottoms had sunk down on his waist in the most tempting way; I had to avoid placing my gaze on his chiseled body so I could focus my fingers.

"You don't get it." I sliced the skin from another carrot and placed it in the basket on the floor beside me.

"Hmmm, you're right. I _don't_ understand what it's like to have all the responsibility and entire weight of everyone's lives on me." Riku raised an eyebrow at me.

"Oh… well, maybe you do understand." I adverted my eyes from his gaze to hide my blush. Of course Riku knew what I was going through. He had survived two months of this.

"Put the knife down. Come." Riku outstretched his hand toward me. He looked so perfect in my dim candle-light. His skin glowed so softly and his hair shimmered around him. I laid the knife in the basket with the carrots and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up and instead of taking me anywhere, as I had assumed he would, he wrapped me close to his body.

His right hand snaked into my hair and his left tightened around my waist. He squeezed me against his chest and breathed in deeply as if he was trying to absorb my being. I stood there for a moment, shocked at his sudden affection, and unable to return his embrace. His fingers gently massaged my head in a way that made my eyes roll back. His other hand applied the perfect amount of pressure on my hip.

"Riku…" I looked up to him then, since he was a few inches taller than me and my head had rested in the crook of his neck, and asked him what I had thought for so long. "I thought you didn't want me." I closed my eyes, remembering the gnawing feeling that had torn me to pieces for the past few weeks.

Ever since we had returned from our supply run Riku had avoided me at all costs. The only time we ever interacted was when we checked all the windows before dusk, and even then there was silence and nothing more. He never touched me, never confirmed that what had happened in the store… our kiss… had meant something to him. I thought that he would never return to me. I couldn't sleep at night for I'd toss and turn, aching with confusion and regret. I felt so stupid, how could I have ever thought that Riku would want someone like me? He was so strong, so self-sure, and I had nothing figured out. We were opposites in every way. I had begun to think that caring about him at all was a mistake.

"Sora, I've spent the past few weeks doing nothing but thinking about you. I couldn't find a way to just… I couldn't… I still don't know what I'm doing. All I know is that I want you. I'm sorry if I made you doubt that." Riku gripped my chin with his thumb and index finger and tilted my head. Soft lips caressed my own, smooth like honey. I felt myself relax into his grasp and kissed him back. The weight that had filled my chest the past few weeks had suddenly been lifted, and I couldn't help but feel so elated that I never wanted to escape from his arms and his kiss.

Riku pulled me closer yet and continued to kiss me softly, with no urgency or want. It was a kiss of reassurance, of confirmation, of acceptance. I could feel all the emotions he was trying to express to me through his lips gently moving against my own, as if we had a language that only the two of us could understand. I wrapped both arms around his waist and let myself fall for him all over again.

When he pulled away we both struggled for air for a few moments. He let out a small, deep chuckle and moved his fingers back into my hair. I nuzzled my head into his neck and allowed myself to inhale his scent.

"Sora, you need rest." Riku slowly moved out of our embrace and grabbed my wrists gently, leading me toward his bedroom. He shut the door behind us and blew out his candle so the room was black. He peered through the slat covering the window then, observing the outside world. I came to look with him. The world was still. Nothing moved in the yard and beyond the fence was still. So far no zombies had found our little sanctuary. When he seemed satisfied with his view Riku closed the slat and drew the curtain closed to block out the light. In the dark he guided me to the bed and wrapped me up in his arms while we fell together on the sheets. I let out a small giggle as I rolled to the other side of the bed. I was dog tired.

"Riku?" I quietly asked.

"Yes?" He replied, far more alert than I.

"Why didn't you just tell me that you still liked me?"

"I never know what to say to you, or how to say it." I could hear the smile on his face through his words.

"Well, even if it comes out wrong, just say something next time, okay?" I rolled over to face him. I quickly pecked his lips and moved just inches away from him. He rubbed my arm while I slipped away into unconsciousness.

I woke up in my bed hours later. I wasn't fully rested by any means, but I felt better than the past few days of torture. I stretched and wondered why I was back in my room. Roxas and Hayner were already awake and out of sight. I rolled off of my mattress and got dressed. I took my sweet time getting to the kitchen from the bathroom, and when I finally arrived I noticed that Olette and Kairi were behind the counter making breakfast. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"Morning, Sora!" Olette chirped at me. Kairi smiled while she whisked something in a bowl.

"Morning guys… where is everyone?" I questioned before sitting down at the counter. They were making pancakes. Riku never let us eat pancakes; I wondered what the special occasion was.

"Well, Riku got us all up early this morning and told us to get our butts in gear. No more vacation for us." Kairi scowled as she spoke, but Olette gave her a gentle nudge with her hip.

"Come on, Kairi. Sora's been working so hard lately. I'm surprised he's even standing. We all have to put in the effort, or we're never going to make it." Olette stuck her tongue out and started pouring batter on to a pan over the stove.

"I know, I know. It's just been so hard lately…" Kairi wistfully blew her hair out of her eyes, for it had grown longer as the months went by, and set back to work. I took it as my cue to leave and hastily made my way outside.

The yard was surprisingly empty. I looked around for Riku, Hayner, or Roxas, but I couldn't find anyone. I walked farther through the grass, still dewy from this morning, and came to the edge of the fence. I hoisted myself up and on to the connective plank across all the vertical pieces of wood so that I could see over the top of the boards. In the forest, beyond the trench of spikes and the barbed wire trap, I could see a flash of silver hair close to Axel's fiery red locks. They were carrying large pieces of wood back to the cabin to put in the fire pile. It had been miserable carrying those chunks by myself, but with all the remaining guys working on it, and Larxene, it seemed to be going by quickly.

When Riku saw me he smiled softly and waved. Axel gave him a strange look right afterwards, and Riku straightened himself out and took his gaze away from me, as if he had done something wrong. I raised an eyebrow but didn't think anything more of the incident at the time.

I opened the gate and shut it behind them. Riku brought up the rear, and while his hands were full, I tried to sneak a kiss in to surprise him. Axel turned to talk to him just as I went in for the attack. By the time he realized what I was about to do he panicked.

"Gah!" Riku exclaimed and dropped all of his fire-wood when he jumped away from me. I stared at him in horror as he backed away from my outstretched arm. The rest of the guys turned around to investigate.

"What the hell, Riku? Are you okay?" Axel asked as I stood there dumbfounded. Riku nodded and began picking his pieces back up, all while avoiding eye contact with me. His response seemed to be enough for the red-head because the guys turned back around and began trekking their way toward the wood-shed. I stared at Riku, my mouth open in shock.

"What was that?" I asked, honestly confused at what I had done wrong.

"Nothing." Riku gruffly replied before walking away from me toward the other men. I stood, alone, and couldn't help but bite my lip in remorse. _What had I done wrong?_


End file.
